Enemies Till The End
by Konzert
Summary: Rivals since they first set eyes on each other, kinda. Pranks are being pulled as two people try to hate each other. But when your best friends are falling in love with the enemy when they're supposed to be on your side, isn't it hard not to follow suit?
1. Default Chapter

Summary: Rivals since they first set eyes on each other. What if one has a change of heart? Or what if there had been ulterior motives by both all along? How will that effect the other and what trials will they have to overcome together? KK 

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin

Enemies Till The End

Prologue

Flashy, too-long, red hair and girly purple eyes. An arrogant walk and seductive tone of voice. That was all there was to Kenshin Himura. He did have a nice, well-toned body worn under nice, classy clothing, but that didn't matter. It was his whole attitude that she hated and what made him her bitterest enemy.

Raven black hair, always in a high, childish ponytail and sharp blue eyes. A prissy attitude and stuck up nose. That was all there was to Kaoru Kamiya. She was a rare beauty, but looks could be deceiving, just like roses; she was beautiful, but full of thorns.

Something had always drawn one to the other. Maybe it was the theory of opposites attract, or maybe it was the fact that they were so alike, they appeared to be extremely different. It was only when you got close and examined thoroughly that you would notice the finer details of their interaction. Sometimes one would purposely goad the other into an argument, and others the situation was purely accidental, but blown way out of proportion. Whatever the cause, the two would always find something to argue about.

Kenshin was one of the high school's most sought after males. Girls loved him and went out of the way to gain his attention. There were few that could though. He had had numerous girlfriends, but none had truly been serious relationships. The one female that had caught his attention was also one of the most annoying and frustrating girls on the planet and he could gladly do without her company. But he enjoyed watching her explode sometimes, even when the anger was aimed directly at him.

Kaoru was the high school's smartest student. She was a hard and determined worker and one of the things she hated the most were the smart people who didn't work. Mainly the most utterly exasperating male in the school. She did many after school activities and had only had a few tentative relationships over the years that never resulted in anything. She had derived great pleasure in annoying the same boy since middle school and she wasn't about to give up the hobby anytime soon.

So? What do you think about this? Does it spark any kind of interest? Would you be willing to read more? And what do you think of the title? I am currently working on another story, but I had a good idea for another, but I want to be sure that this will be read, otherwise it won't be worth writing more. So, please, please review. Thanks!

Keta Himura


	2. Chapter 1

nilnil: Thanks so much for the review. You were my first reviewer for the story. I'm glad that it sparked something for you.

zop: Thanks for the review. I know it was a bit short, but I just wanted to give an introduction. This chapter is definitely longer, so enjoy! 

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin

Enemies Till The End

Chapter 1

Kaoru was walking through the hallways to her next class. She sighed, unusually calm at the moment. Normally she would be all smiles, greeting everyone in sight. It was just her personality. 

She carried a few books in her arms, including some heavy looking textbooks. A few boys had offered to carry them for her, but she had just laughed and said they were acting old fashioned and that she was perfectly capable of carrying them herself. She didn't need anyone doing things for her. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by the shock of something icy against her back. She yelped loudly and cursed as she felt dampness spreading down the back of her white uniform shirt, making it translucent. She whirled around to be confronted by three, immature idiots. Well, maybe only one, but the other two sure were stupid for hanging out with him. 

The tallest one had just released another water balloon in her direction. Seeing it coming, she managed to dodge slightly, but it still smacked against her left shoulder, soaking the shirt and began to spread downwards.

"Sano, who stupid rooster head! You are so dead for this!" She yelled, more like screeched and smacked him over the head with one of the aforementioned textbooks. Needless to say he was left dazed on the floor. "And you two idiots stop laughing! It wasn't that funny!" She added to the two other morons standing there. She turned to storm away, but a cool voice stopped her.

"Hey, Kamiya, you better get a different shirt, much as I enjoyed the view, it just wouldn't be an appropriate look for school." She froze as the voice mocked her from behind, knowing that she wouldn't dare turn around now. He was so going to get it one she got a decent shirt on.

She held her head up high, and pulled her books against her chest. She swung her head back to glance at the boy who had made the comment. Her look let him know that he wouldn't get off easily at all and that his punishment was going to be severe. 'Just you wait Kenshin Himura. I am so getting payback for that comment.' His smug look only added fuel to the fire, especially when he delivered a mocking smile in response to her glare. 

She decided that storming off would be too childish and walked away, feeling his eyes on her back, before she realized that her back was just as wet as her front. Her screech of "PERVERT!" reverberated through the halls. The two boys were left laughing. 

She made it to the nurses a little after the bell had rung. She entered and told the nurse her predicament. Luckily the nurse had a spare shirt, but the problem was, it was too big. The top button rested a little too low beneath the collar bone for comfort and no matter what she tried, the top wouldn't stay together, sagging to the side without the support of a button. The bottom almost covered her plaid skirt, so she tucked it in and checked to make sure it wouldn't stick out. 

She looked at her appearance in the mirror. Her hair was wet and a mess as well. She would just have to brush it out and leave it down till it dried. She scowled, at the thought. It came down to her lower back and could get very annoying, hence the ponytail every day. She took out her ribbon and tucked it into her bag and lightly brushed out her tangled strands. 

She emerged from the bathroom and gathered up her stuff. The nurse smiled at her and handed her a pass, telling her to have a nice afternoon. She smiled and thanked the woman before heading to her class. 

She entered the room quietly and handed the pass to her teacher, her hair sliding into her face and momentarily shielding her from the curious gazes of the other students. She glanced up and noticed everyone was staring at her with something akin to shock on their faces. Even the three boys seated in the far back of the room.

"Ms. Kamiya, do you mind taking the seat in the back? I allowed Haya to sit in your seat because she forgot her glasses today." The teacher asked, not noticing the stares her pupil was receiving. Kaoru just nodded her head and made her way to the seat.

Her luck was just not improving at all today. Who would the seat be in front of but Kenshin Himura. She barely noted his shocked look as she took her place in front of him. She placed her books on the desk in front of her and sat, adjusting her garments, as the collar slipped a little too much to the side, showing off a lot of shoulder to the boy behind her.

"What happened to you Kamiya?" He whispered to her, tugging on the slipping collar. "Isn't this outfit a little too risqué for you? I don't know if it's any better than your other shirt."

"You perverted moron. Get your hands off me." She said, slapping at his hands, which he pulled away immediately. "I don't owe anyone an explanation, least of all you." She swung her head back towards the front of the room, pulling up her collar as she did so.

"So what's with the hair then?" He inquired quietly. "I don't ever remember you wearing it down before to school. You always wear it in that childish ponytail." He said, tugging on her hair, knowing that it would get her thoroughly annoyed. His favorite pastime when they were younger had been pulling her ponytail.

She swung her hair out of his grip, pulling the large mass over her shoulder to pool in her lap. She ignored the comment, but retaliated by dropping the papers the teacher was passing back on his desk, allowing them to fly all over. "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were taking them out of my hand." Was her innocent comment as she looked at him, an equally innocent expression on her face. 

The class finished and she left immediately, trying to get as far away from Himura as she possibly could. She opened her locker and shoved her books in. Wasn't it enough that he was in all of her classes? He didn't even do anything, yet still managed to stay in the honors and AP classes. She put up with his harassment on a daily basis, in school and out. 

She sighed. At least she got a break. Lunch was this period and she would have her two friends to support her. Megumi was especially good at comebacks and insults. 

The lunch room was crowded with socializing teens. Kaoru glanced around and wove her way through the cafeteria, towards her usual table. She was receiving many looks and glances as she sat down. She waited for her friends to arrive as she pulled out her lunch. 

Megumi Takani was a tall girl with flashing brown eyes and dark hair. She was always dressed according to the styles and trends, outside of school, of course. She and Kaoru had met when Megumi needed a math tutor in ninth grade and they had become good friends.

Misao Makimachi was a year younger than both Kaoru and Megumi. She was a bright, bubbly girl, full of energy. She had jade eyes and long hair that was always in a long braid. She and Kaoru were next door neighbors and childhood best friends.

There was just one problem. Misao was nearly obsessed with Aoshi Shinomori, Kenshin and Sano's other idiotic friend. And, although she tried to hide it, Kaoru knew that Megumi had a crush on Sano. She would cover up by saying that she liked looking at Kenshin, but that was really just to annoy Kaoru. What was she supposed to do when her two best friends were in love with her enemy's friends?

The two girls sat down, interrupting Kaoru's thoughts. Megumi was the first to comment on Kaoru's new look.

"Well, I never thought that you would be the one to wear something so risqué, Kaoru." She said, innocently.

"That's exactly what he said." Kaoru groaned.

"Who said what?" Misao piped up.

"Nothing. Anyway, it wasn't my fault. I can't help it if the stupid shirt won't fit. Anyway, it's all that idiot rooster's fault. He got me in the back and then the front with water balloons. How he even got them into school is beyond me, but I needed a dry shirt. This is the only one the nurse had." Kaoru explained. 

"How you two can possibly be related is beyond me." Megumi commented.

"Yeah, you two are polar opposites!" Misao added. "You're smart, he's stupid. You're short and he's tall." At that bit, Kaoru made a face. Noticing this, Misao said, "Hey be lucky you're not as short as I am! Anyway," She continued, "You have black hair and blue eyes and he has brown hair and brown eyes."

"That is all true. I bet he was switched at birth. That's the only reasonable explanation." Kaoru said.

"You do realize that you're attracting the stares of almost every single male in the room, don't you?" Megumi broke in.

Kaoru immediately blushed bright red and tugged at the slipping collar self-consciously. "No. They just think it's weird that I have my hair down, is all." She said as she felt the wavy strands of her hair. "Anyway, it's dry now so I can put it put it up."

"I don't think you should. It looks really pretty down. That's why all the guys are staring." Misao said.

"No." Kaoru blushed darker. "Anyway, all the more reason to put it up." She pulled the strands back into her normal high ponytail. Two pieces slipped out and down to frame her face.

Megumi wasn't sure if that made the situation any better. Now everyone was stealing glances at Kaoru's long, elegant neck, made obvious by the low and slipping collar of the oversized shirt. Oblivious to the looks, Kaoru started eating her lunch. Her two friends followed suit after glancing at the room.

As Kaoru got up to throw her trash out, a boy from Misao's grade approached. She thought that he was just tossing garbage as well, but she was wrong. The boy was blushing and stammering over his words as he spoke to her.

"You look very pretty today, Kamiya-san." He stuttered.

"Thank you very much." Kaoru was surprised, but she answered the boy with a smile. She watched the boy as he made his way back to his table.

When she sat back down, Misao immediately asked, "What did Yukio-san want?"

"He said that I looked very pretty today." Kaoru told her friends. "It was very nice of him." At that statement, Megumi and Misao looked at another and started giggling. 

"I think that you have an admirer." Megumi said, causing Kaoru to blush yet again. Then, the bell rang, interrupting the teasing.

"I have to go! I'll see you two after school!" Misao ran off, calling over her shoulder. Megumi and Kaoru were left to walk to their lockers and their next class, which they had together.

-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-

After school, Kaoru met Megumi and Misao at the front doors of the large school. They were stopped, however, by Sano's voice.

"We'll meet you by the gate, okay Kaoru?" Megumi said and dragged Misao away.

"What do you want?" Kaoru asked Sano, impatiently.

"Can you tell dad that I'm going out with the guys and I'll be home later?" He asked.

"No. I'm not your messenger service." Kaoru told him. "Anyway, you have a cell phone, use that and call him." She turned to leave.

"I can't. I used up all my minutes for the month." He said. Kaoru looked at him. She could have sworn he was blushing slightly. Then it clicked.

"It's because you've been calling Megumi, right?" She laughed. "You should know by now that all she's going to do is hang up on you or yell at you."

"Whatever. Just tell dad." He turned and left, not giving Kaoru the chance to say no again.

-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'  
When Kaoru arrived home, she heard noises coming from the kitchen. It was her eleven year old brother, Yahiko. 

"Hey, Yahiko. How was school?" She asked as she dropped her school bag on the ground and plopped onto on of the counter stools. 

"Fine." He mumbled, his head in one of the cabinets. Finding what he was looking for, his head jerked up and he cracked his head hard.

"Oh no! Yahiko, are you okay?" Kaoru helped her groaning brother to his feet and led him toward one of the table chairs. "You're such and idiot sometimes." She said as she looked through the freezer for an ice pack. She found one and pressed it firmly on the back of his head. "You act like Sano so much sometimes, it scares me." She told her wincing brother.

"I'm not anything like that annoying rooster." He said, indignantly.

"Trust me, Yahiko-chan, you're more alike than you think." She said, assuredly.

"Don't call me that!" He said, folding his arms belligerently. 

"What, little? Why can't I state a fact? It is true you know." Kaoru said innocently and pressed the ice pack a little harder against the back of his head. He winced again and grabbed it away from her.

"I can do it fine on my own now." He said and stood up. He walked over to retrieve whatever he had dropped before and walked into the living room. Kaoru heard him turn the tv on and then the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Kaoru, it's Dad." Kaoru heard her father's voice.

"Hey Dad!" She replied cheerfully.

"I'll be home early tonight and I'll pick up dinner on the way, okay?" He asked.

"Okay! Are you sure you don't want me to make something?" Kaoru inquired. 

"No." Her father responded a little too quickly. "No, that's fine. I'll just pick something up." It was a good thing that Kaoru wasn't paying too close attention to her father's voice, or she would have heard a slight note of panic in it.

"Okay. Oh yeah. Sano's with his friends and he didn't say when he would be home. You should probably get something for him and he can eat it later." Kaoru said.

"Sure. I'll be home later." Her father hung up and Kaoru put the phone down on the counter. 

'I wonder what he'll bring home for dinner.' She thought as she wandered into living room and joined Yahiko. Soon after, the two could be heard arguing about what to watch and who got to hold the remote. 

-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-

Okay, well this was the first chapter. I hope that everyone likes it so far. I actually wasn't going to make the chapter this long, but I did, so here it is and I hope that you enjoyed it. If you have any questions, leave a review or email me. I love feedback, so reviews are always appreciated. Thanks for reading!

Keta Himura 


	3. Chapter 2

**nilnil**: I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for reviewing! 

Enemies Till The End

Chapter 2

"Hi, Dad!" Kaoru called as her father walked into the house. She and Yahiko were still wrestling, trying to gain control over the remote.

"Hello, kids. I'm afraid it's going to be pizza tonight. Very unhealthy, but it's edible." Koshijirou told them. He reached over and yanked the remote away from the fighting siblings and clicked the tv off while holding the box of pizza in his other hand. He walked into the kitchen to put the food down. Kaoru and Yahiko followed.

"Is the glutton out for good, or is he coming home for dinner?" He asked Kaoru, referring, of course, to Sano.

"I don't know. He just said that he was going out with the guys and that he would be home later. I don't think that he has any money to buy himself dinner though; he gambles it all. Not that you're supposed to know that, but he plays cards with a bunch of guys from school and they take the whole betting thing seriously." Kaoru responded, reaching for plates.

"I'll talk to him about that then." Koshijirou said. "Maybe threatening to cut down on his allowance will do the trick."

A few minutes later, the three of them had just sat down to eat, when the door opened. They heard Sano yell,

"I smell PIZZA!" He walked into the kitchen two seconds later. "I bought Kenshin over 'cause his aunt and uncle are eating out and his cousins are at a birthday party." He moved, revealing the red head in the doorway.

Kaoru was annoyed. She knew that he would find a way to ruin her evening as well. He had already ruined her morning and afternoon, albeit it was Sano who had ruined her afternoon, but Kenshin had helped.

The boys got their food and sat down at the table. Kenshin sent a smirk her way and she glared back. She looked away and back at her food. She could still feel his eyes on her and suddenly she felt like a glutton in front of him. Her appetite disappeared and she looked at the unappealing food on her plate a little longer before standing up.

"Well, I'm done." She announced. She tossed the food into the garbage can and went to hide in her room.

"I thought you loved pizza. What's the matter, raccoon girl?" Sano asked around a mouthful of food.

"I ate. I'm full. Unlike you I don't stuff myself just because I can. I am able to control my eating habits." Kaoru responded, smacking him on the head as she walked by, causing him to get a smear of sauce on his face. Her father, brother and Kenshin all laughed and she allowed herself a small smile.

Up in her room, she turned her radio on and started her homework. First came the math because she needed the patience to work her way through it. If she waited to do it after she had finished the other work she would probably end up frustrated and not do it at all. That would not help to improve her grade. After a half an hour of struggling with the problems she gave up and went to get help.

"Sano!" She yelled impatiently, banging on his bedroom door. His music was turned up too loud as usual.

"What?" He yanked the door open so she couldn't abuse it anymore. His cell phone was in his hand. Kaoru raised an eyebrow at this, but decided not to make a comment.

"Did you cover this yet in math class?" She asked, showing him her notebook. She was in the accelerated classes. They covered different things and occasionally there would be something he knew that she didn't, but not often.

"Nope, sorry." He said. She sighed in frustration and turned her back on her twin. An amused voice stopped her.

"Hey, I'm in your class, you know and I do have high grades." Kenshin spoke from behind her.

"So?" She asked, turning back to see him lounging in the doorway. Sano had disappeared back into his room

"So, I'm insulted that you wouldn't ask me for help, especially when I'm right here." He said, moving toward her.

"Why would you offer me help? Wouldn't it be more fun to watch me struggle?" She asked him sarcastically.

"I could ask you the same question. Besides, I owe you for the time you helped me with that English research paper." He reminded her.

"Fine. As long as I can understand what to do when you're done, I don't care who shows me how to do it." She said and walked back to her room, Kenshin following. She froze for a second before entering her room. 'Was it clean? Yes. She was pretty good about cleaning up her stuff. But, did she want him to see her room. It was kind of private after all. Stupid,' she reminded herself. 'He's seen it before. All those immature pranks they used to pull and still do. Whatever, you can kick him out once he's done helping you.'

"So, what's the problem?" Kenshin asked, coming over to her. He barely spared a glance at the room, focusing on helping her instead.

"I get stuck whenever I get to this part. I can do the easier ones, but it's the harder ones that I can't finish." She showed him the work she had already done.

"Okay, this can be fixed. Here, let me show you." He reached across her for her pencil and demonstrated on the paper. He then went on to correct her first problems and helped her to finish the rest of them.

"Well, you should be fine now. I'm gonna go find Sano and say goodbye." Kenshin stood, stretching. He had helped her for over an hour.

"Okay, thanks for the help." She said as they walked into the hallway.

"Sure. No problem. We're still enemies, right?" He tossed out, with a careless smile.

"Of course. Till the end." She replied, smiling as well.

Okay, this chapter gives you a little more insight on Kenshin and Kaoru's relationship. There was also a little bit about Kenshin's family in here as well. Have fun with it. This chapter was a little shorter than I wanted it to be, but I've been working on my other story, Protector, which has been giving me tremendous writers block. If you have time, check it out and tell me what you think! Also, before I forget, I was hoping that I could get some suggestions for names, first and last. It would be a great help to me! That's all for now. Please review! It makes me really happy and really inspired to write another chapter! Thanks!

Keta Himura


	4. Chapter 3

nilnil: Thanks for reviewing and the advice. I've been really busy lately, so it's kind of hard to find time to do things I enjoy, like writing.

I forgot the disclaimer last chapter. Stupid me. Here it is: 

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin in this chapter or the last one. I won't own it in future chapters either.

Warnings: A bit of bad language on Kaoru's part and frog dissections.

Enemies Till The End

Chapter 3

The next day Kaoru handed in her math homework. She was happy to see that she had gotten every single problem right with Kenshin's help. 'I should thank him again later.' She thought when she finished looking over the work.

Their relationship was an odd one. She had grown up with him being her twin's best friend. They had seen each other at their best and worst. More often than not, their worse sides were bought out by the other. He was basically family, but there was a rivalry between them that had always existed. They knew just how to press one another's buttons to trigger any kind of emotion. Despite the rivalry between them, they had a habit of helping each other out when it was needed. 

'Next period is what, AP Bio. I'll see him then.' Kaoru thought. Not many people knew of Kaoru and Kenshin's strange relationship. Kaoru wasn't even sure if her friends were aware because she had never verbally told them what really went on between the two. Not that she didn't think they had figured it out. 

The bell rang and Kaoru walked through the halls to her classroom. No one was there yet, so she sat down, allowing her book bag to slide down her arm to land with a thump on the floor. 

"What do you have in there, a load of bricks?" Questioned her teacher as she walked into the room, a large, rectangular bucket in her arms. 

"No, just a lot of heavy textbooks." Kaoru replied, then asked, "What are we going to be doing today in class?"

"Well, since we just finished body systems and you guys are ahead with your chemistry work, I thought we could have a little fun and get an inside look at bodies. You're going to be doing frog dissections." Her teacher informed her, putting the bucket down on a desk near Kaoru. Inside she could see the stiff, very dead bodies, wrapped in clear plastic bags, of frogs. "I know that some of the students won't enjoy this, but the majority of the class will, so I'm going to demonstrate for those who don't want to do it themselves." Her teacher continued.

'I get really squeamish around frogs. This is not going to be good.' Kaoru thought to herself as she watched the teacher set trays out along the counter in the back of the room. Students started trickling into the classroom and filling up the empty seats. 

The moment Kaoru felt a tug on her ponytail, she knew that he was there. But, when she turned around to yell at Kenshin he was calmly sitting in his seat. She glared at him until she saw him glance in her direction. "Jerk." She told him and slid around in her seat to face the front of the room, just catching his grin, out of the corner of her eye, that he gave in response. 

The teacher gave out packets with directions for the students to follow and questions to answer. Then said, "Now anyone who doesn't want to do this themselves, come to the back with me. Everyone else pair up and go to work. The packets are due at the end of class." 

Kaoru got up to follow the teacher. There was no way she was going to cut open a frog. Suddenly she was yanked in the opposite direction. "You're working with me." Kenshin told her and pulled her over to one of the trays.

"Get off!" Kaoru said forcefully and tried to shove him off. "There is no way I'm working with you! I refuse to go near that thing." She struggled, but could not break his iron grip. 

"I know you won't go near it. That's why you're working with me. We're going to cure you of your fear of frogs. Even if you don't, I remember that time Sano and I left a frog on the middle of your bed. It was all damp from the pond water and it had left a smelly spot. We waited and finally you screamed so loud. You were shrieking like a banshee and running down the hall. Then you burst into Sano's room smacked us both so hard we were seeing stars and ran off to find your father." Kenshin recalled, as he pulled on gloves and handed a pair to Kaoru. "Here, you won't have to actually touch it with your bare hands." He explained.

"You just had to remember that particular incident, didn't you?" She said sarcastically. "At least you paid. I remember being so mad when I couldn't get the pond stink off my bed. It took months to go away. At least the punches hurt and then I got you back afterwards by putting salt in your water at dinner and dumping whatever that spice was all over your food. Your reaction to that was my absolute favorite." She smirked slightly, remembering the pained expression on Kenshin's choking face. "And I don't want to touch it anyway. You can do all of the cutting and poking and prodding. I'll just watch and take notes." She crossed her arms. 

"I'll need you to hold it while I stick the pins through the skin flaps though." He told her, most likely enjoying the green color her face turned at the mention of flaps of skin. 

"No way! I did not voluntarily do this! You forced me to do this with you so now you can do it yourself." She stated, belligerently. 

"Is there a problem over there you two?" The teacher called from her station, a group of upset looking girls around her. The rest of the class stopped working to peer over at the two as well. 

"Nothing's wrong at all ma'am. Kaoru here is just a little squeamish, but she's over it now." Kenshin said, slinging his arm around Kaoru in a friendly way, knowing that that would only serve to annoy her further. 

"Keep your voices down. Don't make me have to treat you like children and have to tell you to use your inside voices." The teacher said and turned around.

"Yeah, you heard her Kamiya. Use your inside voice." Kenshin snickered. Kaoru whacked him over the top of the head and turned away muttering under her breath.

"Lousy, good-for-nothing, arrogant asshole." So maybe it wasn't under her breath because Kenshin could hear her clearly. 

"Don't let your father hear you talking like that." He reminded her. He grabbed her hands and put them on the frog. "Hold that." He took up a pair of small scissors. "Remember when he heard you that one time you got mad at Aoshi for taping the handle on the sink and instead of the water coming out down, out of the faucet, it sprayed you right in the face? The got you grounded for two weeks." As he spoke he cut a line down the middle of the frog's belly, ignoring the queasy look on Kaoru's face. When he was done, she immediately took her hands away and glared at Kenshin.

"You are so high-handed. What makes you think you can make me do this?" She said, angrily.

"Because you would do anything for me. You're helping me get a good grade in this class right now." He told her absently. "Hold the that flap there so I can stick the pin through." He grabbed her hand again and guided it towards where he wanted her to hold it. She complied making a face at him. "Just look away when I do it. You don't have to look, though you should when we get to the organs. That's going to be the best part." At that Kaoru immediately looked away from the frog, but maintained her hold on it.

"At the rate you're going, you're going to be hearing a lot more colorful phrases than that one." She told him briskly. 

"Okay, I have the pins through. You probably won't have to hold anything else. The pins will do that job, but you should look 'cause we have to draw diagrams of the organs." He told her.

"Oh, great." Was her sarcastic reply. She still hadn't turned.

"I'll just cut through the muscle and you can answer some of those questions, how about?" He asked her. She nodded and leaned on the counter next to him, keeping her shoulder in the way of the sight of the dead frog. It was silent for a little while, both of them working intently. "You sure you don't want to help me clear away some of this fat?" Kenshin disrupted the peacefulness. Kaoru just glared at the paper in front of her, not wanting to turn and risk seeing the frog.

"You are just so funny." She said acidly and kept her head down. He laughed at her comment and continued pulling bits of fat away from the organs. When he was done, he nudged her side.

"Come on Kaoru. Just look. It's actually kind of interesting. You're probably not as squeamish as you think." Kaoru could tell he was attempting to be nicer to her. He had called her by her first name. They had done that when they were younger, but as they got older and started to get on each other's nerves all that they either called the other names or by their last names. So, she peeked. 

It wasn't a very pleasant sight, but it was a little interesting. After learning about body systems and how they worked, it was neat to be able to see actual organs. She held off the nausea long enough to draw the organs and examine the frog slightly. She did so with what appeared to be clinical detachment. 

They handed in the lab work they completed and the bell rang soon after. Kenshin caught up to Kaoru in the hallway. "See that wasn't so bad after all." 

"Whatever you want to think. Just because you're a boy and are apparently faultless doesn't mean that the rest of us are." She told him. 

"You think I'm faultless?" He asked, an eyebrow raised.

"NO! What I meant was that you appear so to other people. I know what an idiot you really are." She answered.

"Whatever. Did that help you to cure your fear of dissecting things?" He asked. 

"No. I have to go. I see Megumi and Misao waiting for me." She ran off with that statement, unaware that Kenshin stopped and stared after her until she disappeared into the crowded hallway. 

And that's where I'm going to end this chapter. It took me a little while to update. I've been extremely busy lately. We had a week of vacation and then school started and it is relentless. Sports started, spring track for me and after practice ended I was going directly to play rehearsal because I play in the Pit orchestra and that doesn't end until around ten at night. That leaves me up till twelve, trying to finish all my homework. I'm also preparing a solo for an All-state audition and my teacher also wants me to start preparing pieces for collage auditions. That's two years away for me! Anyway that's what's going on in my life right now. Not that you needed to know all that.

So, the chapter. I got the inspiration for this from the frog dissection we did in Biology class last week. I hope that you enjoyed it. I was tired when i revised this, so I apologize for any major or noticable mistakes. So, leave a review because I love them and I like knowing what everyone thinks!

Keta Himura 


	5. Chapter 4

Okay, wow. I was acting so pathetic and I kept checking my mail to see if I had gotten any reviews for my latest chapter and then suddenly, overnight, I had seven and four of them were from Shenyu! I was completely shocked and really happy too! Thanks!

nilnil: Thanks for the review and depending on my schedule, hopefully, you'll be able to read more soon.

Sorrow'sRaven: Thank you for the review and I'm very glad that you like my story. I'm working on the updating.

Shenyu: WOW! Thank you so much. I can't believe you reviewed every chapter. At first I really was going to have Kenshin and Kaoru's relationship one where they couldn't stand each other at all, but then the opportunity presented itself and I just nudged the story in a different direction. I am flattered that you would put my story on your favorites list. Thank you. I enjoy writing very much and it's so nice to have people reading it and actually enjoying what you've written. 

Disclaimer: See, I remembered this time! Okay, on with the story! Opps, I'm supposed to say that : I don't own Rurouni Kenshin. Now we can go on!

Warnings: Once again, some bad language. Um, what else? Kaoru with a wooden spoon and also her trying to cook.

Enemies Till The End

Chapter 4

"Kaoru, so do you know where Sano disappeared to?" Megumi asked her. She appeared to be worried, the complete opposite of how she normally acted towards Kaoru's rooster headed brother. It was the end of the school day and the two girls were waiting for their missing friend. "He wasn't in the last two classes we have together. I know that he doesn't normally cut classes because your dad threatened him about that, so I was just curious." She finished lamely, as she realized that her friend was giving her a knowing look. 

"He was supposed to be in class. Oh well, you shouldn't worry about him. I know that you love him and all, but the idiot probably snuck away to gamble. Some gang set up something in the woods behind the school. We could walk through there though, if it would make you feel better." Kaoru answered her casually and glanced out of the corner of her eye to see Megumi's reaction to that statement. 

"No, no. That's alright." Megumi said, almost absentmindedly as she glanced out a nearby window towards the woods. Her worried expression had materialize again. She finally processed the whole sentence and burst out, "I don't love that stupid idiot! How could you even think that? Anyway, I'm not really worried about him. He can do whatever he wants." She flipped her hair over her shoulder and out of her face in a careless gesture.

"Alright. Whatever you want." Kaoru said, then changed the subject. "Do you know where Misao is, or at least what would be taking her so long?" 

"Let me take a wild guess. With Misao it's not that hard. She's probably pestering Aoshi again. She mentioned something about asking for help in English. Wouldn't you know, but the ice cube actually expresses himself very well through writing. He aces that class, then again he does well in every single class." Megumi answered Kaoru, scanning the hallway and glancing out the window towards the woods occasionally. 

"Yeah, you're probably right." Almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth, a stoic Aoshi appeared with Misao chatting happily away on his heels. She spotted Kaoru and Megumi and bounced over. 

"GUESS WHAT?" Misao said loudly.

"What?" Megumi said, in a bored tone of voice. She stood contro posto, a hand on her hip, her head tilted to one side. She gazed down the hallway instead of at their strange friend. 

"Aoshi agreed to tutor me in English!" Came the excited answer. Misao didn't even notice Megumi's disinterest. 

"Really?" Kaoru said. "Misao, do you even need a tutor in English? I thought that it was your best subject." 

"It is, but even the best sometimes need help." Misao sniffed and looked away from Kaoru in a dramatic gesture. "It's also a way to see him once a week." She added with an impish smile.

"Umm, I'd be careful if I were you Misao, you wouldn't want Aoshi to hear you saying that, although it is fairly obvious to everyone you love him, but anyway, he's coming over here right now." Kaoru warned, laughter apparent in her voice. They both turned to face the boy coming in their direction. 

"Have you two seen Sano. He was supposed to meet me and Kenshin, but neither of them are here." Aoshi asked them. 

"Umm, Kenshin said something about talking to one of his teachers when I talked to him last period. I think he wanted to ask about extra credit or something. He'll probably show up soon." Kaoru told him. "Megumi was just asking me about Sano though. She hasn't seen him for the last two periods. Right, Megumi?" She looked over at her friend. "Whatever. We think that the idiot might have cut to go hang out in the woods where those guy set up some gambling thing in there. If you find him, send him home. Sorry I couldn't help you any more." Aoshi just nodded and walked away.

"BYE AOSHI! SEE YOU LATER!" Misao shouted down the hall after his retreating form. Kaoru and even Megumi winced at the volume of her yell which had gone unacknowledged by Aoshi.

"Okay, lets go. You two are coming over, right?" Kaoru said, taking her two friends by the arms and turning towards the doors. 

"Yeah."

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The girls spent the afternoon at Kaoru's house. Her father phoned to say that he would be home late, so she could make whatever she wanted for dinner. Megumi and Misao cringed when Kaoru asked if they wanted to stay for dinner. 

"Hey, Kaoru, why don't we help you make dinner?" Megumi said, glancing over at Misao.

"Yeah. As a matter of fact, we can do the cooking, you can just relax or something." Misao added, a bit of nervousness edging her voice.

"No, that's okay guys. I enjoy cooking. It's a relaxing thing for me to do." Kaoru said, oblivious to her friend's panicked states. Yahiko came in in time to hear the last exchange. 

"You're cooking tonight?" He asked Kaoru, who nodded. "Okay, then I'm not eating here tonight." He stated.

"What are you implying you little twerp?" Kaoru asked brandishing a wooden spoon that was conveniently lying on the counter.

"I wasn't implying anything. Your cooking STINKS!" Yahiko said. "How are you ever going to get married? You can't cook and you're UGLY!" 

"That does it!" Kaoru yelled. She ran after her little brother who made his escape through the door. Megumi and Misao just looked at each other and then headed towards the kitchen.

A few minutes later, a disgruntled looking Kaoru came into the kitchen with a broken wooden spoon and Yahiko. "That's just a warning. Don't insult me ever again." She went over to the freezer and pulled out the ice pack from the day before. She plunked it down rather hard onto the large bump on the crown of Yahiko's head and pushed him towards the living room. He went, grumbling under his breath. 

"We just started this while you were busy Kaoru." Misao said as Kaoru came over to them.

"Oh, thanks guys. I don't cook that badly, do I?" She asked. There was a moment of oppressive silence. Then,

"Oh no."

"Of course not."

"You know little brothers. They're all the same."

"Yeah, they're all little idiots."

"You guys, you don't have any siblings." Another awkward silence.

"Hey, I think the water's boiling over!"

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Kaoru, Megumi, Misao and Yahiko were at the dining room table eating the noodles that had, fortunately, been cooked by Megumi. As they cleared away the dishes, the doorbell rang. Kaoru looked at the other two and then at her brother.

"You weren't expecting anybody, right?" As he shook his head in response, she said, "I wonder who that could be then." And made her way to the front door. She opened the door to find Aoshi and Kenshin. They were carrying a limp Sano between them.

"Oh no! What happened?" Kaoru gasped as she took in the sight. She opened the door wider to allow them to enter. "Here, just put him on the couch. Yahiko, go get whatever first aid stuff you can find in the closet." 

"He got into a fight with those idiots in the woods. He did sneak off their. Apparently someone made a major bet that he couldn't not take." Kenshin explained. "He couldn't hold up his end of the bargain so he got the shit beat out of him instead. Me and Aoshi found him just as the jerks were finishing up, so we got him the hell out of there before anything else could happen."

"Thanks." Kaoru said sincerely as she looked over at him and directly into his eyes. She wanted him to see that she really was grateful. He smiled back at her.

"No problem." Yahiko came back, this time followed by Megumi and Misao. The latter headed straight for Aoshi and Megumi went over to where Sano was on the couch. 

"This was all the stuff we had." Yahiko handed the bandages and a washcloth to Kaoru. Megumi took them from her.

"I'll do it. It's good practice for me anyway." Kaoru nodded and stood back, lending a hand when Megumi needed the help.

As she was finishing up, Sano began to wake up. Kaoru went to get water and aspirin for the headache she knew her twin must have, especially after Megumi smacked him in one of the more bruised areas of his head. When she came back, she could hear Megumi telling him off.

"You idiot! You overconfident chicken head! Do you have any COMMON SENSE? You should have know better! You could have been seriously injured! You got lucky that Kenshin and Aoshi were there to drag your butt out of trouble!" Kaoru quietly handed the glass to Sano and backed out of the way again. She motioned for the others to come into the kitchen with her and they all left Sano to Megumi's mercy, knowing that she would properly admonish him.

"Do you guys want any food?" Kaoru asked them.

"Did you make it?" Kenshin asked. Kaoru glared at him.

"What is it with everyone insulting my cooking today? Geez, it's not that bad." She huffed. "No. Megumi and Misao made most of it." 

"Okay, well then sure." Kenshin said. He dodged out of the way of a bowl of noodles that had miraculously gained the power of flight.

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Okay, that's all for now. It's vacation time, so hopefully I'll be able to update soon. I have the next two chapters of this written and the next one is typed, so depending on the responses to this chapter, you'll get the next one sooner or later. I hope you liked the chapter. There wasn't much going on until the end there, but I'm not finished with that just yet. I added a little loving sibling interaction there between Kaoru and Yahiko too. There was a little bit about Megumi and Sano as well. Also Misao getting tutored by Aoshi. Now where could that lead to? I have so many ideas. Oh, the contro posto thing, with Megumi, was just me showing off. For anyone who doesn't know what that means it is just when a person stands and leans their wait to one side of their body. I have been wanting to put that into something ever since I learned what it meant. We were looking at art work from the Renaissance in my AP Euro class and my teacher told us what it meant. I think that you're supposed to apply it more to art, but whatever. This chapter was a little longer than the last one. So, enjoy! Oh, yeah and review too please 'cause I love getting responses from everyone. 

Keta Himura 


	6. Chapter 5

Nyako: Thank you for reviewing! I'm glad that you're enjoying the story so far! 

Mori'quessir: Thank you! I'll do my best with the updating!

Wheee: Thanks for reviewing. I checked out chapter 3 to see what was wrong, but as far as I could tell everything was in working order.

Irulan 24: Thanks! I'm kind of writing whatever comes to mind. There is a plot and stuff but everything in between is whatever I can think of. Some of the things in the story are based on some of my own experiences or my friend's experiences I'm working on the longer chapters and stuff.

Disclaimer: I'm such an idiot. I'm so proud of myself for remembering to put this here. Before I do forget, I don't own Rurouni Kenshin.

Warnings: None that I can think of.

Enemies Till The End

Chapter 5

"Well, hopefully you've learned your lesson, Sanosuke." Kaoru's father sighed. Sano sat on the couch before him. His bandages were all tightly and neatly wrapped thanks to Megumi.

"I have. I won't gamble with that crowd again." Sano mumbled. He had finished fending off Megumi and she and Misao left with Aoshi and Kenshin who said that they would walk the two girls because it was dark. Then his sister had yelled at him too, although he had to say that he thought Megumi had been more violent. Kaoru had finished just in time for his father to come home and take another swing at him. But his dad didn't yell. He only spoke in a disappointed tone that left Sano feeling more guilty than the two girls did.

"Well, I guess that's good. I was hoping to hear you say that you wouldn't ever gamble again, but maybe it's too soon to be expecting miracles. You should listen to your sister and that girl of yours. They know what they're talking about. I know that our family went through a lot last year and having to keep it from everyone is hard, but it was Kaoru who suffered the most and you don't need to hurt her more by turning to gambling." Koshijirou watched his son, who avoided eye contact. He sighed. "Just think about it, okay? I won't ask for promises, but you are grounded for the next two weeks."

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Kaoru was upset that her brother had gotten hurt over something as stupid as gambling. She wasn't too worried though because she knew that he could defend himself pretty well and Kenshin and Aoshi were usually there to bail him out.

Kenshin. Now he was another problem too. Not a bad one, just a challenging one. She couldn't help but think that something had changed between them. Something, but she didn't know when or how. Oh well.

But, what mostly occupied her thoughts, was that Sano's gambling was all her fault. After what happened last year, her family had changed. She wished that that had not been the root of his gambling problem, but it was and now she felt extremely guilty.

It wasn't just her fault though. 'It was that bastard's fault too.' That was the last thought that crossed her mind before she fell asleep.

123

The next day at school everybody, especially the girls, were exclaiming over Sano's wounds. He waved them off like it was nothing but allowed them to coo and cluck over him. Then Megumi showed up.

Kaoru couldn't help but laugh at her brothers antics as he tried to apologize to Megumi. They weren't even dating, and yet they acted as though they were. They would both get so jealous if anyone else tried to steal the other. They enjoyed needling each other that way, but in the end it was quiet obvious to everyone that they were never serious. They both really liked each other.

"Hey Kaoru!" Misao's voice came from behind her.

"Hi Misao. What's up?" Kaoru responded, turning to find her friend. She was the picture of enthusiasm. "I didn't think that you would ever act so excited about going to school."

"I'm not. It's just that I talked to my guidance councilor and I told her that I wanted to take the creative writing class this year cause I have an extra period and she said that it would be easy to switch me into it!" Misao answered, a look of happiness on her face.

"Why would you do that?" Kaoru asked, confused. Then she said, "Wait, never mind. That was a stupid question."

"Yeah, it kind of was." Misao said in a thoughtful tone of voice, but continued before Kaoru could protest. "Aoshi suggested that if I wanted to expand myself in the Language Arts area it might be a good class to take. Also because I'm considering becoming an English teacher. So I decided to do it and the bonus is that there is only one Creative Writing class and Aoshi is in it!"

"Oh." Kaoru said. "So it was Aoshi's idea for you to switch in the middle of the year instead of waiting until next year to take the class?"

"Well, no. But I decided that I didn't want to wait. Anyway, he'll be graduating at the end of this year and this is my last chance to be in one of his classes!" Misao said, a sad look crossing her face.

"Okay. I guess I can see it from your point of view, but it seems that your infatuation with him borders on obsessive. What are you going to do all next year when he's in collage and you're still here?" Kaoru asked.

"If anyone ends up in the same collage as he does then I'll be visiting them quite a lot and I'll probably try my hardest to get into the same collage. Of course, it would be nice to be able to get him to confess that he loves me before the end of the school year so I won't need to have an excuse." Misao told her, once again the happy, bubbly girl she usually was.

"Oh. Okay." Kaoru said. "When do you have this class then? I'm interested to hear what Aoshi's reaction will be so let me know what happens, okay? Then again, it might be hard for you to describe since he never shows his emotions to anybody. The only people I can think that he would relax around would be Sano and Kenshin." She laughed and Misao made a face at her.

"Aoshi has shown emotion to me before. I can see it in his eyes even when he doesn't have a facial expression." Misao crossed her arms and defended Aoshi.

"Sure. Okay." Kaoru said and made it clear that she didn't believe Misao in the slightest. Misao just glared at her before they were interrupted by the bell. "I'll see you later. Have fun in Creative Writing class!" Kaoru added as she walked down the hallway to her first class.

"Bye!" Misao waved and excitedly ran off.

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"Hey Kamiya!" Kenshin said as soon as Kaoru had sat down at her desk in their art history class. Although she was grateful for what he and Aoshi had done yesterday, that was yesterday and it would be back to needling each other today. "You were almost late today. That's too bad. It would be a big mar on your almost perfect attendance record."

"Yeah, well you can't say that you've never been late to class before either. You can't even say that you haven't been late to at least one class every week. Anyway, it was all YOUR fault that I was late that one time, which was last year." Kaoru shot back.

"Quiet down class. We're watching a movie today on Impressionist artists." The teacher told the class and turned to push the movie into the VCR. The class settled down to either sleep, or do other schoolwork. They never needed to know anything about the movies. They were only a prelude to whatever unit they were covering.

"Like I was saying," Kaoru whispered. "It was your fault and you were acting so weird that day. You said you wanted to talk to me and then you just stood there and stuttered and then you finally said to forget it. I've never forgotten it though because you made me late to my favorite class and then the teacher…" She trailed off, unnoticed by Kenshin.

"Whatever." Kenshin said. He appeared disgruntled that the conversation had been turned on to him. "What class was your favorite back then?"

"It was that photography class." Kaoru's voice had taken on a peculiar tone that Kenshin couldn't identify and its softness was not due to the movie. "All the girls in that class, besides me, were only there because Mr. Yukishiro taught that class. He was so dreamy and he was really nice too, but I actually wanted to learn something along with whatever guys were in there. He left, though, during the middle of the year." Her eyes were glazed as she stared out of the window.

"Yeah. I remember him. What ever happened to him? Do you know why he left so suddenly?" Kenshin asked. Some kind of indiscernible emotion flitted across Kaoru's face.

"I don't know. My class was never told anything. We just got a new teacher, Mr. Ogai, halfway through the year." Kaoru responded. She turned her back to Kenshin and watched the movie for the rest of the period, dropping her head onto her arms when the dull voice of the narrator became too much. Kenshin wondered briefly about Kaoru's uncharacteristic behavior for a few minutes before turning to glance at the movie and then to his math homework.

123

Megumi, Misao and Kaoru were all at their usual lunch table. They had been talking for a while before Kaoru remembered to ask Misao about her new class.

"So Misao, how was Creative Writing class?" She glanced at Megumi who had yet to hear the bit of news. "Misao signed up for the Creative Writing class on Aoshi's advice and guess who's in the class too?" Megumi raised an eyebrow and Kaoru nodded. They both turned to Misao.

"It was such a good idea! I absolutely love that class now!" She said happily.

"Is it the class you love, or is it because Aoshi is in it?" Megumi slipped her dry comment in. Misao glared at her and turned her nose up dramatically.

"Misao, I think that you should rethink what you want to do in life. I think that acting would suit you just fine." Kaoru quipped and both she and Megumi dissolved into giggles.

"Both of you are heartless. Not that I haven't considered acting, but I think I'll stay with teaching." Misao said. "ANYWAY. Back to the subject. AS I WAS SAYING BEFORE I WAS SO RUDELY INTERRUPTED, I love the class and like I told Kaoru before, Aoshi being in it is a bonus." Misao continued to glare at her friends. "And guess what Kaoru, Aoshi wasn't surprised to see me at all."

"Yeah, I know. I was thinking later, after I talked to you, that he wouldn't be because you make it so obvious that you love him, that even he knows. He was probably expecting it. I wonder why he would even mention it then?" Kaoru said. She and Megumi laughed some more at their friends expense and Megumi just had to comment as well.

"Maybe he's actually warming up to you a little. He might have even made that statement on purpose so that he could spend more time with you." Her statement elicited a big grin from Misao.

"Oh I hope that's why he mentioned it. It's probably too good to be true though. Anyway though, guess what." Kaoru and Megumi exchanged glances. "The teacher put me in the seat next to Aoshi!"

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Okay. There was some stuff about the past to pick up in this chapter. Everything else was just character interaction.  
I know I said that this chapter was ready to go, but my mom was mad at me so whenever I asked to go online she said no and I couldn't go on when she wasn't home cause my sister uses that kind of thing as blackmail. My mom wants me to start practicing my violin more so it's nine hours a week at the least. Then there is sports and school and everything else on top of that. Sorry, you didn't need to hear about that. Anyway, I'm tired so this is a short note. I'll judge when you want the next chapter from the response that this one gets. You know what I'm going to say, review because I love them and I love knowing how people react to my story!

Keta Himura


	7. Chapter 6

Okay, this is to the person that flamed me, not that I really think you'll be reading this, but that was so not cool. What do I have to do with the story. You don't know me so how can you say that I suck? Did you mean the story sucked? I think you got the point across with the two exact same flames. I mean, what the hell was up with that? Why couldn't you come up with something more creative or CONSTRUCTIVE to tell me? I wouldn't be so mad if you had given me a reason for why I sucked, or why my story did, which was what I believe you meant. You could have at least read the whole thing before making that statement. Whatever, I just want to say that I'll take criticism as long as it is constructive and can help me improve the story. If anyone else has something pointless to tell me, don't bother because I don't want to hear it. That aside, I would like to thank everyone else, your nice comments are really appreciated.

Mori'quessir: Sorry I don't know much about the C2 thing, so I can't help you there. I'm glad that both you and your dog are enjoying the story. I have two dogs and the bigger one gets really irritated by the typing sound of the keyboard. He is so strange. 

RurouniKenshinFreak8o8: Thanks for reviewing. Here's the next chapter!

Fearna: Thanks for reviewing. I'm glad you think it's interesting. I have heard of Cardcaptor Sakura and I used to see it occasionally on tv, but I've never read it. My mom didn't like me watching anime, she still doesn't, but it did interest me. If I get the chance, I'll check it out. 

Whee: Umm, I'm not sure? I don't want to really give anything away. I'm still trying to figure out if I want that aspect of the past to play a major role in the rest of the future. All I can say is to keep reading and find out. 

Nyako: Thanks. Hope you like this chapter. 

Disclaimer : I don't own Rurouni Kenshin (sadly)

Warnings : Language, used by me, if you didn't notice it above and some more below. Manipulative teachers out to get our favorite couple. A bit about Kaoru's lunch making skills.

Enemies Till The End

Chapter 6

A few days later Kaoru could be found in her English class listening intently to her teacher as he explained a new assignment. The project was going to be easy and hopefully she could find some creative way to make it fun as well. The teacher had said something vague about partners but Kaoru was hoping to work alone. She worked much more efficiently and quickly by herself and there wasn't anyone in particular that she wanted to work with in the class. She snapped her attention back to the teacher as he began handing out rubrics. 

"The project will be due two weeks from now, but I will be checking your progress daily. This way no one can wait until the last minute to do it and I will be able to help you out and offer suggestions." The teacher said. "Now, I know that you guys will be disappointed but I'm going to be picking partners or you. I did put you with people I know you'll work compatibly with, so you don't need to worry." 

At that statement the class protested loudly, but they were ignored by the teacher who walked back to the front of the classroom. 'Whatever.' Kaoru thought. 'I'll probably end up with someone who doesn't want to do the work anyway.' She turned her wandering thoughts back to the teacher to listen for her name.

"Okay, and Kenshin, I want you to work with…Kaoru. She'll help you get a good grade on this project and that'll raise your overall average. I know that she's already helped you with other assignments for this class, so you two should have no problem working together." 

Oh no. No. People weren't supposed to know that she helped him or that he helped her. It was like a silent agreement between the two of them that that kind of information wasn't supposed to be common knowledge. It wasn't even thought that they were remotely friendly towards each other. They only appeared to antagonize the other in front of everyone else. Well, maybe she was overreacting just a little. If they didn't act any different people would forget that the subject had even been bought up. 

Kaoru could see people casting disbelieving looks at each other and questioning glances in her and Kenshin's directions. She glanced at him and all he did was shrug his shoulders. Okay, if he could act so casually, so could she. 

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"Misao, I think I'm going crazy." Megumi stated as she sat down at the lunch table across from the other girl. Misao looked up, amused at her friends uncharacteristic statement. 

"Really? Why doesn't that surprise me?" Misao joked. Megumi glared at her before continuing on with her dramatics.

"I just agree-" She was cut off.

"Hey guys!" Kaoru said as she plunked herself down on the bench next to Megumi. She dropped a paper bag down on the table. Both Misao and Megumi moved away from it as though there were some kind of bomb hidden within the nondescript bag. Kaoru made her own lunch everyday. "What?" Kaoru asked, confused. "What's up?"

"Megumi's going crazy." Misao said, gaining Kaoru's attention.

"Really? I would have thought that that would be you." Kaoru answered, not missing a beat. Misao made a sour face but Kaoru just laughed. "Okay, so why is she going crazy?"

"I don't know. You interrupted just when I was going to find out." Misao turned back to Megumi, looking at her expectantly. 

"Ahem. As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted. I just agreed to-" 

"HEY! Kamiya!" Came a voice, once again interrupting Megumi's second attempt at dialogue. Kaoru turned to the source of the voice. 

"WHAT?" She said in an annoyed tone. "Why do have to bother me in one of the few periods that I'm actually free of you?" 

"You know that deep down you truly like me." Kenshin said arrogantly.

"What do you want? This isn't exactly helping to curb the rumors that are going around." She said.

"I wanted to ask when you wanted to get this project done. We have to decide what we want to do it on by tomorrow." He said.

"Meet me in the library after school. We can look through some of the books that the teacher told us he had set aside and then decide." Kaoru answered, turning her back on him. 

"Sure. Try not to be late." Kenshin left. 

"You guys have to work on something? Together? You guys have to work on a project together? How are you going to survive?" Misao said disbelievingly. She and Megumi started laughing. "How did you end up stuck with him and what was that about rumors?" 

"It wasn't by choice, let me assure you. The teacher decided that he wanted to assign us partners and he said that I would help Himura boost his grade in the class. He then went on to say that he knew I had helped Himura out before so we shouldn't have any trouble working together." Kaoru finished. 

"Wow. That's too bad." Misao said. "But, it is the truth." More laughter from her two friends ensued. 

"Yeah, yeah." Kaoru grumbled. "Anyway, we were listening to Megumi." She changed the subject. "What was it that you wanted to tell us?" 

"Umm, well, just that I actually agreed to…" She paused. "I agreed to go out with the rooster head." She wasn't looking at her two friends. They would almost say that she looked embarrassed, but Megumi was never embarrassed about anything. 

Both Misao and Kaoru stared at Megumi in shock, until, "Well, finally." Misao said.

"Yeah, I know. I never thought that I would see the day." Kaoru added.

"Definitely. It's about time."

"Those two have been flirting, in an odd kind of way, ever since they met." They both looked back at their friend. She seemed to be having trouble figuring out what her reaction to their reaction should be. Her myriad of different expressions only served to amuse her friends further. 

"I have not been flirting with him since I first met him!" She finally burst out. He protest did no good. 

"Whatever you want to think Megumi. So, when and where are you going?" Kaoru asked. 

"This Friday. I don't know where." Megumi answered sulkily, crossing her arms and attempting to look thoroughly annoyed.

"This is going to be very interesting." 

123

"Himura." Kaoru greeted as soon as she saw the red head walk through the library doors. She had just looked up from glancing at her watch for the fifth time when she saw him. "Maybe you need to get a watch. I was on time and you were late." 

"That's not how it works. I'm always on time. You just came early." Kenshin told her calmly, apparently not noting the anger in her tone or the cherry color her face seemed to be turning.

"Listen here. While we're working together you come on time. If that means be there at a specific time, then you be there, otherwise you just accept a failing grade from the teacher. Alright, Himura?" She growled at him. Then swinging away she stalked over to one of the tables scattered around the room and dropped her bag onto one of the plastic chairs. Kenshin just watched her for a moment before walking over himself. 

"Whatever you say Kamiya." Was his only comment.

"What is that supposed to mean?" She asked, still worked up.

"I know I've said this before, but you're just not as heartless as you like to appear around me. You wouldn't let me fail even if I didn't do anything at all. Deep down you've got a soft spot for me and you know it. So, let's get to work, okay?" He walked off into the tangle of shelves around them, leaving Kaoru with her mouth hanging open. When she noticed what she was doing, she quickly followed.

"You are going to work. I'll make sure of that." She told him. "Anyway, didn't you hear what I said before in the cafeteria? The teacher set books aside on some good topics for us to look through. They're over by the front desk." 

"Okay." Was his simple reply and he changed direction and headed toward the front of the library.

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"Hey, anyone home?" Kaoru called as she walked into her house. 

"In here!" Came the reply. Her father was probably cooking something for dinner and maybe this time he would let her help out. Tossing her stuff on the staircase to carry up later, she headed toward the kitchen. 

"Hey, dad? What're you making?" She asked and hopped onto one of the counter stools. 

"I'm making chicken, with rice and corn as well." He told her. HE stooped down and peered into the oven, then checked the temperature.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" She asked, eagerly. 

"You could set the table, if you wanted." He answered, not seeing her disappointment at not being able to really help out. 

"Okay, sure." She said and slipped down from the stool and walking around the counter to find some plates and glasses. The front door opened and Sano walked in.

"Hey, everyone. Can I help out?" He asked. 

"Yes. Help Kaoru set the table." Their father replied.

"Sure." Sano shrugged and pulled the plates out of his sister's hands as she walked by. 

"Hey, Sano. I heard some interesting news today." She said, glancing at him to see his reaction. His face remained expressionless, but she could have sworn she saw a faint sheen of pink grace her twin's cheek.

"Oh, yeah? What was it?" He asked, effectively keeping his cool.

"Something about this Friday and a certain fox?" She said, her tone slightly questioning and teasing at the same time.

"Oh, yeah. That." Was his response. Kaoru looked at him, smiling.

"You two are so adorable. You both don't want to admit it, but you really like each other." She giggled and turned toward the kitchen. 

"Hey, Dad! Guess what?" She called. He poked his head around he open door.

"What?" He asked.

"Megumi finally agreed to go out with Sano! Can you believe it?" She laughed. 

"Really, well it's about time." Was his only comment before he turned back to the kitchen.

"So, where are you going to take her?" Kaoru asked as they finished setting the table. 

"I'm not telling you. You'll end up telling Megumi." He answered. 

"No I won't." She protested. "Misao's the one who can't keep her mouth shut about anything." 

"Well, truthfully, I don't know yet." He answered. "I still have to think about it." 

"I cold help you out." Kaoru offered, being uncharacteristically kind to her brother.

"Nah, I'll figure it out. I want it to be my idea." He told her. "Call me when dinners ready." He walked out of the room.

"Sure." She called after him. 

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Okay, well that concludes this chapter. Hope that you enjoyed it. I apologize or ranting above about the flame thing, but it annoyed me. Anyway, my thoughts are up above and I don't need to repeat them down here. I love forcing Kaoru and Kenshin into situations where they have to see a lot of each other. I also have the beginnings of Sano and Megumi getting together in here too. I tried to make this chapter a little longer and I think I did pretty well. This was a little rushed but I wanted to get it out by today. Sorry about any mistakes, but I was really bad about editing this chapter. Just to let everyone know, I went on a trip this past weekend, that's why I updated late. My school orchestra went to Boston to play in a competition and then do sightseeing stuff. Next weekend I'm going upstate, in NY, to a two day track meet, Red Raider. I don't know if I'll be able to update before that. I just wanted to give you a heads up about it. Okay, now leave behind a review. If you feel the need to flame me, then please give me a reason why you don't like it and if you could, maybe suggest a way to improve it. Thanks!

Keta Himura 


	8. Chapter 7

HEY EVERYONE! I'M BACK! Let me tell you that I have not a clue as to what I want to write. It's sort of a minor case of writers block that took me a little more than two weeks to work through. It also doesn't help that I have to keep prying the keys off of the keyboard of my laptop because I'm eating cookies and the crumbs are getting stuck underneath and then the keys won't go down. ANYWAY! (Can anyone tell that I'm really hyper right now?) This was a really long and pointless note. All I want to do is thank the reviewers!

Shenyu : Thanks for reviewing. I really like the idea that Kaoru is horrible at cooking and doesn't think that she is, so I have fun with that. I completely agree with you about Megumi and Sano as well. I enjoy writing about them, as well as Aoshi and Misao. 

Nyako : Thanks for the review and I'm glad you liked Sano. 

Disclaimer : I forgot to write this and added it last. I don't own Rurouni Kenshin.

Warnings: Just some language. We all know how Kaoru can get when she's angry. 

Now, where did I leave off, (authoress stares absentmindedly at the screen and scratches her head.) Hmmmm. (Lightbulb!) A certain project….

Enemies Till The End

Chapter 7

Now Kaoru had a lot of patience, actually, no she didn't, but what little she did was almost all used up. 'Where is that infuriating asshole?' She thought to herself. Apparently he had ignored her commands from the day before and decided that he was going to show up late, or maybe even not at all. That made her mad. She had been tapping her foot steadily for the past twenty minutes and he still was not there. 

Kaoru huffed out a breath causing her bangs to stir. 'I might as well start this project on my own.' She thought to herself and turned towards the shelves.

"Hey, where're you going?" Kaoru turned back slowly to face the boy who stood behind her. Her hands were balled into fists and she looked like she wanted to hit something, really badly. The best target being Kenshin, who now stood in front of her, an uncertain expression on his face. He was trying to figure out what the best thing to do was. Run away or try to brave the storm which he knew from experience would not be pretty. Time ran out and the choice was made for him.

"Where have you been?" Kaoru's voice was deceptively sweet. Kenshin took a step back before he answered.

"I was talking to someone." 

"And who would that someone be? Someone so important that you would risk being twenty minutes late?" Kaoru asked, taking a step forward and closing the distance Kenshin had put between them. 

"Um, yes?" His tone was uncertain even as he glanced towards the door to assess his chances of getting away with his life. 

"Do you mind telling me just who this important person was?" She asked. 

"It was Naomi." He told her.

"What was so important that you just had to talk to Naomi when you were supposed to be here?" She was mad. 

"I wanted to ask her if she wanted to go to the movies this weekend." He told her.

"You wanted to ask her out? That girl? Geez Kenshin you seriously need to get a better taste in girls. She's dated five other guys since the beginning of the school year!" She informed him. "I hope that she told you no and it really couldn't have waited until tomorrow?"

"Well, yeah it could have." He said, thoughtlessly. 

"I could kill you right now." She said, thoroughly aggravated. She smacked him over the head with her handy, heavy, textbook and walked back to the table. "Get your sorry little ass over here right now and start helping me." Kenshin quickly heeded her, not wanting or needing another bump to go with the one already atop his throbbing head. 

Kaoru shoved a piece of paper in his face. "Here are some books that will be useful for our project. Look them up on the computer, write down the authors and go look for them. That shouldn't be too hard for you right? I mean you are in an enriched class after all." She pulled out a notebook. "I'll start writing down the outline for the essay part." Kenshin nodded and left.

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"So, Megumi, do you know what you're going to wear on Friday?" Misao asked. They were sitting on a bench in front of the coffee shop that was just around the corner of the school. It was a nice day. 

"Not yet. I was thinking about going to the mall tomorrow and finding something new. I feel like he's seen me in everything I own already. You and Kaoru can come a help me out." Megumi responded. "I don't even know why I said yes in the first place. For some strange reason though, I couldn't make myself say no."

"That's 'cause you like him. You two are so funny. You both don't want to admit that you're attracted to each other. Then you agree to go out with him and you're acting like you don't want to. I don't get you. If Aoshi asked me out I would be bouncing off the walls." Misao answered. Megumi laughed.

"I can't wait for the day he actually does. I mean you never know. It was really surprising to me when Sano asked me." 

"Well, we'll see. Everyone else knew you two were going to get together someday." Misao said self-assuredly. She continued, ignoring Megumi's protests. "Who I would really like to see get together is Kenshin and Kaoru."

"Yeah. I agree with you there." Megumi said. "Those two are definitely perfect for each other."

"Yeah, but they're even worse than you and Sano. The rivalry they have is only for show, but I don't think that they realize that. Sure they do get into real arguments, but when you see them help each other out it doesn't seem possible that they could dislike each other so much." Misao said.

"Yeah. Maybe we could do something to help them out? Or would it be a bad idea to get involved?" Megumi asked. She held her hands up as though she were weighing her options, literally. "Help out, or not? Hmm." 

"Not get involved? We should have done something a long time ago." Misao interrupted her. She was bouncing around on the bench excitedly. "I'm all in favor of helping those two out."

"Good, then we have some planning to do."

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An hour and a half later, Kenshin and Kaoru were working in a compatible silence, with only the occasional murmur to point something out. This was how they normally worked together. So comfortable within one another's presence. Kaoru was the first to break the quiet. 

"We should take these books out and clean up our mess. The librarian keeps giving us glares so I think that that means she want us to leave." She stretched her arms above her head. 

"Sure. I'll take these out and why don't you try to organize these papers. You might as well keep them 'cause I'll probably lose them." Kenshin agreed, standing up. Kaoru nodded. 

They left the library and headed off in the same direction, Kenshin mumbling something about walking her home. She didn't argue. Sometimes it was nice just to get along with him. They walked in silence for a while before Kaoru ventured,

"So what happened with Naomi, since it was so important and all." 

"Nothing, she just laughed and said she already had plans. Mostly she made me feel like an idiot. I seriously thought that you were the only one who could do that." Kenshin answered, and then winced. That had left him wide open for some sort of insult, but none came. 

"Oh." Was all Kaoru said. "Did you like her?" 

"No. I did it mostly because Sano and Aoshi dared me to. I really didn't want to risk the humiliation, but they decided that they wanted to blackmail me just so they could get a little bit of amusement at my expense." He told her.

"What did they use to blackmail you?" Kaoru asked, curious. Kenshin didn't answer right away.

"Just some stuff. Why would I tell you anyway? You'll just use it against me too." He responded. 

"Yeah, that's true." Kaoru said. "Did Sano tell you that he finally asked Megumi out. I think the whole situation is so funny. Those two were definitely meant for each other though. In some odd kind of way they just fit together so perfectly." Kaoru stared up at the clear blue sky above them and waited for Kenshin to answer. 

"They are perfect for each other." He answered quietly. Kaoru dropped her gaze to his face at his tone. He was looking at the ground in a brooding kind of way. 'Geez he changes moods quickly.' She thought.

"Do think that everyone has someone, I guess like a soul mate or something?" Kaoru asked him. 

"I don't know." Kenshin answered. "I've never actually thought about it." 

"I think that it's possible. Seeing those two makes you hopeful, you know? Not that they probably even realize it, but I think that it would be so nice to have someone that completes you, in a sense." Kaoru said dreamily. 

They arrived at Kaoru's house and stopped. "Do want to stay for dinner?" Kaoru asked him. He did eat with them a lot.

"No thanks. My aunt decided that she wanted to make a big dinner tonight so I'm eating with the family." He told her, his expression changed slightly at the word family. 

Kenshin's parents had died when he was just seven years old. Kaoru could remember the span of days, right after they died, where Kenshin wouldn't talk to anyone. When he came back to school his normally happy face was dull and he separated himself from the other children. One day Kaoru had found him just staring out the classroom window, during their recess. No sane child ever gave up the chance to get out of the stuffy classroom.

Flashback

"Kenshin, what's the matter?" The small girl dragged a chair over to sit with the little boy. She didn't get a reply. He continued to look out of the window, his eyes focused beyond the playground outside, and past the fields and treeline. 

"I'm going to really miss your mommy and daddy." She told him. "But, you're still here, so it won't be that bad." She took hold of his hand. "And Tomoe and Sano and me and your aunt and uncle and my mommy and daddy are all here. We are here so it won't be so bad for you." Kenshin slowly turned from the window to look at the girl. "I don't want you to be sad anymore, just happy. You won't talk to me anymore and that makes me sad." She told him. Tears filled her big blue eyes. 

Kenshin didn't say a word. He just watched Kaoru sniffle for a few seconds. Then, he slowly reached out and wrapped his small arms around the girl. She did the same in response and they stayed like that until recess was over.

End Flashback

Kaoru smiled at the recollection. She didn't know if Kenshin remembered that day, but she did. She would always cherish that one special memory. Then she realized that she had spaced out in front of Kenshin. 

"Oops, sorry. I was just remembering something. Never mind. How are your Aunt Kaede and your Uncle Hiko and Mika and Yasuo. I haven't seen them in a while. Oh, also Tomoe. The last time I saw her was probably a year ago, before she went away." Kaoru asked. Kenshin's face froze for an instant, but he recovered and answered.

"They're fine. You know how Mika and Yasuo are though, little brats." He responded. "I'll see you whenever, okay Kamiya?" He turned back to the direction they had come. 

"Sure. See ya." Kaoru said. She watched his retreating form until he turned the corner, then made her way up the front path. 

123

Kenshin walked away, emotions swirling through him. 'I should have told her then and there. Just let her know. Despite the fact that we have this weird rivalry, she has been there for me through just about everything. And she probably deserves to know.' He ran his hand through his hair, frustrated. 'I'll talk to her tomorrow.' He decided and continued to walk home." 

123

Okay. Yeah. Writer's block, lots of school work to catch up on, violin, my cousin's birthday. It all adds up and leaves me with nothing. I can add more to the list too. Sorry it was a little slow, but I tried. It's also a little short, but it's what I wanted for the chapter.  
There was a bit about Kenshin's family in there. I also mentioned Tomoe, but I'm going to leave you wondering as to what part she plays. Let me know what you think. Anyone can feel free to email me too. I have my Spring Vacation right now, so I'm hoping to write at least two more chapters and post again. Anyone who is on vacation or already had it, have a fun on your days off. Tell me if you want to read more, so to do that you have to review!

Keta Himura 


	9. Chapter 8

Hi everyone! Here I am again. I hope that you all enjoyed the last chapter. Here is the next installment for your reading pleasure!

nilnil : Thanks for reviewing. Kenshin and Kaoru's relationship is a strange one, so I'm kinda just going with whatever feels right when I write it out. Don't worry too much though, there will be some pranks ahead.

Shenyu : Thanks! That was so adorable. If you do write something about Kenshin and Kaoru as kids let me know! I would definitely want to read it!

Reignashii : You know, my computer tried to change your name to resignation. It's so annoying! Thanks for reviewing and read on to find out what happens.

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin. (I couldn't think of anything creative this time.) 

Warnings: Something unexpected. Well, at least I thought that it was really unexpected. I didn't even mean to type it, it just slipped in there all on its own. 

Enemies Till The End

Chapter 8

Misao was sitting in her Creative Writing class the next day. She was finding it extremely hard to concentrate on the lesson the teacher was giving. She believed that it had something to do with poetry. Her thoughts were mainly focused on the person in the next row over. 

Aoshi Shinomori, the love of her life sat in the next desk over. She couldn't help but turn her head and stare at him. Being so close to him always caused her nerves to tingle and she lost all semblance of concentration. Needless to say, it was not helping her grade at all. Oh well, that just meant that Aoshi had to help her for longer in their tutoring sessions. 

Her eyes wandered towards him. His dark bangs fell over those alluring, icy blue eyes as he looked down at whatever he was writing and his strong features were set in their usual unreadable expression. His long graceful fingers moved his pen quickly across the notebook page. It was almost funny to see him at the desk that was clearly too small for him.

Suddenly he glanced up at her. She panicked and quickly turned back to her own notes. Although she wasn't a normally shy person, a bright blush was spreading across her nose and cheeks. She could even feel her ears start to turn pink in her embarrassment. 

'As if it is not so obvious now that you were practically drooling over him a few seconds ago. One look at you and anybody could guess.' She thought sarcastically to herself. A very, very, quick glance back over at him showed her that he had gone back to his work. She prayed that he hadn't seen, at least her blush. She could still feel it's lingering effects on her face. 

It wasn't her fault that she liked him so much. He was like a magnet that kept drawing her gaze, as well as her thoughts and heart, to him. It was almost a helpless feeling of adoration. She didn't know what he felt though and that left her confused. 

She had never openly confessed her feelings to him. Still, it was obvious. The blush when he caught her staring, occasional stuttering when she spoke to him, years of tagging after him. Her friends had certainly caught on to he infatuation with him. She was confused because he had never done anything to get rid of her even when she knew she was being irritating, but he never really acknowledged her. Sure they had spoken, but she didn't know what he saw her as. It was very frustrating. 

An irritated sigh left her lips. She really should start paying more attention to the teacher, or at least try to think about something else. How about the mall after school? No. Kaoru and Kenshin? That just reminded her of her own situation. It was hopeless. This wasn't going to work.

Misao looked at the clock. 'Concentrate for five more minutes.' She told herself. 'Five more minutes and then lunch.' Another sigh escaped her and she turned to stare out the window. Then she peeked back at the clock. Forty five seconds had gone by. She fidgeted with her pen before focusing her gaze forward and mentally challenging herself to stay still for the four minutes and fifteen seconds left of class. 

Finally the bell rang. Misao didn't think that she had ever had to do anything so difficult before. Remaining still was just something she could not do, but she had nearly managed. She was up and out of her seat in a flash. It was so ironic that she ended up on the blue and white tiled floor with her books scattered in front of her. She huffed with frustration, irritated with herself.

'If I hadn't jumped out of my seat so fast… Damn. I so need to learn how to control myself.' She was growling in her mind. She didn't notice the person gathering up her books for her and placing them on the desk besides her head, she so busy berating herself silently. She only noticed when the person tapped her on the top of her head. 

"What?" She scowled upwards. Couldn't the moron see that she was busy? She was met with an outstretched hand. She looked up farther into glacial eyes. 

"It looked like you needed a little bit of help and you've been sitting on the floor for a few minutes. I took the liberty of picking up your books." Aoshi told her. Misao blushed once more. 'Oh man, how humiliating!' She turned an even brighter red when she noticed that his hand was still extended towards her.

"Oh!" She took it and pushed herself upwards. She didn't want him to have to actually pull her up. "Thanks!" Her whole hand tingled after he released it. She could have gone on holding on to it all day. It appeared that her blush was going to be permanent for awhile.

"It was no problem." He handed her, her books. "Are you enjoying this class?" He asked. He moved towards the doorway and she automatically followed. She thought about his question and immediately thought of him sitting at his desk. Her thoughts trailed off. Then she realized that once again she had failed to answer him and that permanent blush burned.

"Um, yeah. It's really interesting. I'm surprised that there aren't a lot of other kids taking it." She had managed to say something interesting instead of stupid this time. 

"Well, why didn't you take it? I don't think that a lot of kids have really heard about it." He said. They were heading towards the lockers, just as the bell rang signaling that they should be in lunch. Whatever. Everyone was always late to lunch. 

"That's true. I only flipped through that book of classes that they send home. I didn't actually read through it." Misao answered. They stopped at her locker. "Thanks for telling me about it though. I really do like it so far." She wasn't always obsessively staring at him.

"I had a feeling that you would like it." He told her. She smiled at him and turned to her locker. She couldn't really think straight at the moment. He had started a conversation with her, kept it going, walk ed her to her locker and was apparently waiting for her to finish putting her books away. He had never ever done anything like this before. Normally she had to go out of her way to get his attention. She realized now that that was why she was so uncomfortable with his attention. He normally didn't pay this close attention to her. It was so uncharacteristic of him and that was why she couldn't function normally. Her fingers were fumbling out her combination., but she couldn't seem to get it right as the thoughts went through her mind. Then…

"Misao." She stopped and turned towards him. Wow. When had he ended up standing so close to her? She looked up. He was really, really close. Now his hands were on her shoulders and all she could do was stare up at him. She had absolutely no clue what was going on. Then she felt it. The faint caress of his lips against her cheek. She was left leaning wine eyed against her locker as he disappeared. 

'Holy crap. Oh my God. Did he just…no. There is no way. He just KISSED my cheek! I'm in heaven. Holy mackerel. This is so unbelievable.' Her thoughts were a jumbled mess that she could barely make sense out of. 'No one is going to BELIEVE this!' 

She quickly turned to her locker and fumbled with the stupid combination once more. She finally got it open, jammed her stuff inside, grabbed her lunch and sprinted off towards the lunchroom. She never wanted to wash her cheek ever again. She knew it was stupid but she couldn't help it. The only way she would ever wash her cheek was if Aoshi decided that he wanted to kiss her again.

"MISS MAKIMACHI! NO RUNNING IN THE HALLWAYS!" Came the hall monitors painfully loud voice. She was always telling Misao to slow down. "AND YOU'RE LATE!"

"Sorry, sorry!" She called over her shoulder as she slowed her sprint to a jog, but once she was around the corner she headed off at top speed again. She slid to a to a stop in front of the lunch room doors and walked in, scanning the crowded room for her friends. They were at their usual table. She ran up to them.

"HEY GUYS! You will never EVER guess what happened to me today!" She exclaimed as she plopped down in the chair next to Kaoru. She was bouncing up and down in her excitement. 

"No. We can't guess, but since you're dying to tell us, just do it." Megumi said as she watched her friend. Misao had not sat still since she had sat down. It was obvious something had happened. 

"Okay, prepare yourselves. Aoshi kissed me." She blurted it out quickly. Kaoru dropped her sandwich and Megumi just stared. 

"There is no way." Kaoru said.

"This is unbelievable." Megumi stated.

"It was just on the cheek. It was really weird too because he just walked away right after. It was totally out of the blue too, I mean he was acting a little different towards me today, so I was a little unnerved. He was acting so uncharacteristic." She told them. "After class I fell over and he helped me up and picked up my books. Then he started a conversation and walked me too my locker. I turned around and he was really close. I had no idea what was going on and then he just leaned over and kissed my cheek. I was basically in shock after." 

"Wow. This is historic. Has he ever had a girlfriend before?" Kaoru asked.

"Nope." Misao answered.

"Okay, that's just a little stalkerish of you Misao." Megumi told her. "But Kaoru is right. Ice Man actually acknowledged you."

"Hey." Misao said, offended. "He talks to me sometimes. This time it was him who started the conversation." She crossed her arms, hugging herself. "It's just, I have no idea what that was supposed to be. I mean he just walked away after and didn't say a word. Am I supposed to do something?" She asked.

"Chances are it meant something. He might have surprised himself even. Maybe it was a spur of the moment thing and he got confused or something and didn't know what to say to you. He'll probably talk to you soon." Kaoru reassured Misao.

"I hope so." Was all Misao said. 

123

Aoshi walked away from his encounter with Misao. Kaoru's prediction had been correct. He didn't know what was wrong with him today, but seeing Misao sitting on the floor, apparently talking to herself, was just too cute a sight to resist. But, he had lost control and that wasn't a good thing. Who knows what he would do next. He knew that he was going to have to avoid the small firebrand that made him do strange things for the next few days. 

He sighed. It was Wednesday which meant two more days of school where he had to avoid her and then the weekend. This wouldn't be easy.

123

The course of true love doesn't and shouldn't always run smoothly. Not having experienced it myself, I can only say what I have heard and read to be true. Arguments and disagreements make a couple's bond stronger, otherwise it will break them apart. That is how it is determined whether or not they were meant to be.

Different people have different views and expectations about true love. I think that many people believe that it is the perfect romance that can never be attained. There is just not that level of perfection in the human society, so we can never know just what true love is. But, I believe differently. Call it childish dreams, but I think that true love isn't what people expect it to be so they can't recognize it when they find it. 

So what is true love? It's all what you want to think or believe.

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Okay, that's it for now. I'm sorry for the lateness and the shortness of this chapter. I hope you enjoyed. It was a bit of an odd chapter.

I want to ask everyone's opinion. I want to start another story. I had one, but no one seemed to be too interested in it, so I'm going to take it off and maybe try to rework it. But my whole point is that I would like to work on another story because hopefully I will be getting some free time once school is over in a little more than a month. Just something to have on the backburner. I have a few ideas and I just wanted to know which one you like the best. The titles are indefinite ones. 

Complicated Love Tomoe is dying and there is nothing the doctors can do for her. All that they can do is try to keep the pain at bay and make her comfortable. Through this all Kenshin loyally stays by her side. A young nurse, Kaoru, is sent to take care of Tomoe in her last days. Suddenly things become much more confusing and complicated, at least, for some. Is there such a thing as more than one true love? 

Can I Take Your Picture?  
Kaoru is a collage student, working part time in a library and struggling to fulfill her dream of becoming a writer. One day she bumps into a mysterious man who asks to take her picture. How could she refuse? Then he disappears. Strange circumstances lead her right back to him and she begins to become curious about him. What will she find out?  
(Wow, this was definitely one of my more random ideas. I have no idea where this just came from.)

The Day Care Center 'None of it had been planned. One night. Just one night was all it had taken to bring her to where she was today. Alone, well not quite.' Kaoru has been abandoned by the one person she believed loved her the most. Not knowing where he had gone, she is forced to make her way without him. Will the new stranger be enough to make her forget?

Okay, tell me what you think!

Keta Himura 


	10. Chapter 9

Shenyu: Your welcome and I'm glad you enjoyed. 

Reignashii: Thanks for reviewing. 

Kimberlyann: Keep on reading and you'll have the next chapter. 

Blooded WyNGs: Thank you very much for reviewing and your questions will be answered eventually. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin

Enemies Till The End

Chapter 9

Wow. Big news from Misao. Kaoru could hardly believe her ears. It was simply a miracle. She had never thought that she would see the day. But she felt bad for Misao. She is so insecure about what it could mean. She obviously couldn't see what the rest of them could. Aoshi cared about her. Maybe he didn't recognize his affection for her either, but it is there. Visible in his actions and words towards Misao. Kaoru only hoped that he wouldn't do anything stupid because of the situation. 

It was the end of the day and Kaoru was sitting in class, literally falling asleep. Her head was on her hand and her eyes were drooping. Who knew that one whole school day could make you this tired? She had learned during a previous period that she would be going shopping later. Wouldn't that be just great? She was so tired and now some time in the mall would only serve to make her more irritable. 

She sighed. There was absolutely no way that she was going to be able to get out of it. She had had the luck of missing that last three trips to the mall, but this time they had waited before telling her so that she had absolutely no chance of coming up with any kind of excuse. Having sneaky friends, who went behind her back and came up with evil, twisted plots to torture her, was not a good thing. She had already resigned herself to that fact that she was going to be in the overcrowded, shopaholic's dream world for at least three hours after school. The time where she should be doing her homework, cleaning her extremely messy room, coming up with some new prank to play on her overgrown twin and his friends, walking the imaginary dog. Anything else but being in the mall. 

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Kenshin had been watching Kaoru for a while from his seat, one row over and two desks back, for nearly the whole period. It was amusing to just watch her. She didn't seem to be able to concentrate at all and for the first thirty minutes of the period she had been shifting in her seat and taking halfhearted notes on a sheet of paper. She had then started to fold the paper into some kind of shape, therefore making any notes on the paper useable. She had finally settled down and was just resting her head on her hand. 

While he had been watching her he had been thinking some things over. At first he had been thinking serious thoughts, but then they turned mischievous as he spotted something crawling its way up his desk. Probably not the best thing to do if he actually wanted to have a civil conversation with Kaoru after class, but he shrugged and reached over anyway. 

This was going to good.

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Ten more minutes before she was going to dragged to her death. 'Well, that's making the situation a little too dramatic, but it is feasible.' She told herself. 'This is so not fair. I have evil, plotting friends who are out to get me in any way possible. I thought that was the job for Kenshin and my overgrown, rooster-headed brother.' She willed the clock to freeze and the bell to somehow stop working so that school wouldn't be over and then it would be too late to go to the mall.

All thoughts disappeared when she felt a feathery brush on her arm. It wasn't enough to interrupt her thought process, so she ignored it and went back to her musings. She took notice seconds later she felt something else. The sensation made tingles and chills go down her spine. She reached over with her other hand while simultaneously looking down at her arm and flipped. 

It had eight legs and it was BIG. It was one of the daddy long legs kind. Which made it ten times worse because of previous experiences. She immediately jumped up, emitting a half shriek, which she had tried to choke back, turning it into a half squeak that was loud enough to catch the entire class's attention. She shook her arm furiously as she hopped around, finally managing to flick it off. That did not make the situation any better. Although she was a little bit calmer she didn't take her eyes off the spot where it had landed. The damn thing had scuttled into her open bag which had been resting besides her desk. There was no way she was touching that bag now. NO WAY! 

'Why do these things always happen to me?' She thought as she groaned aloud. 'It's just not fair!' 

She couldn't leave without that bag. It had all her class work, well, what little she had gotten done, and her homework assignments. By now that class was laughing. The girls had gotten over the initial shock of seeing the spider, most of them hopping down from the chairs they had jumped onto and calming themselves down. The boys were still laughing and teasing the girls about it. 

"Does anyone want to help me out please?" She asked the class. Most of the girls shook their heads and the boys didn't respond at all, although her plea had elucidated a few titters throughout the classroom. The teacher made no move to help either and just turned back to the board to continued teaching. Kaoru turned around. Her gaze snagged with Kenshin's as he gave her an innocent look. It was entirely too innocent. 

"Why do I have the feeling you have something to do with this?" She whispered to him as she sat down and edged her bag away from her seat with her toe as the teacher resumed the class. The student's had calmed down and were studiously taking notes again.

"Me? I sit back here." He told her gesturing to the desk. 

"You could so reach if you wanted to." She told him. "And for your information, if you don't find some way to get that damn spider out of my bag after class, you are going to regret it very badly." She glared at him fiercely to let him know that, when it came to spiders crawling around in her book bag, she was deadly serious. 

"Oh yeah? Well I think that I won't regret it. This could be really interesting, in fact, I have somewhere to be directly after class, so I'm sorry, but you're going to have to find someone else to help you out." Kenshin smiled benignly at her and turned away, apparently not noticing the enraged glare that he was receiving. 

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The bell had rung and Megumi and Misao were waiting for Kaoru by her locker, but she was nowhere in sight. A few minutes later she came into view around a corner, a dark expression on her face and walking in swift, angry strides, muttering to herself. People got out of her way very quickly. Misao and Megumi glanced at each other and waited.

"Hi Kaoru!" Misao greeted. She was bouncing in place on the tips of her toes and her braid was swinging all over the place. She had nearly hit Megumi a couple of times.

"Hey Kaoru." Megumi said more calmly, shooting a glare at Misao's unruly braid as it swung by her head.

"Hey guys. You know, I've been having a really bad day and I think that-" Kaoru was cut off abruptly.

"No. You're coming with us today and that's final. You've been wearing jeans for the past two weeks which means you need new clothes and you're helping me out at the same time." Megumi said firmly as she pushed Kaoru towards her locker.

"The only reason I've been wearing jeans is because all my wash is sitting at home in piles because I've been too busy to do it. I would have been doing it today, along with all the other chores I need to get done, but instead I'm going out with you guys." Kaoru reasoned. 

"I still need you to help me anyway." Megumi said, not letting Kaoru argue any further. "Hurry up so you don't drag this out any longer than it has to be. You're already delaying us." Kaoru made a face, but turned to her locker.

"So, what took you so long anyway?" Misao's curious nature go the better of her. All she received was some incomprehensible mutterings on Kaoru's part. "Huh?"

"You two are going to have to help me come up with something really good to get Himura back, okay?" Kaoru said as they walked out of the school building and into the parking lot. 

"Why? What did he do?" Megumi asked.

"He dropped a daddy long legs on my arm during class and I freaked out. To make things worse," She added, "It landed inside my bag and he wouldn't help me get it out, so after class the teacher managed to get it out for me. He is so in for it." She looked at her friends, who were giggling. "I have to get him really good." 

"We'll help you out. This should be fun." Misao chirped, bobbing up and down. They got into Megumi's car and pulled out of the parking lot. 

"How was the rest of the day for you guys?" Kaoru asked after a few minutes. She was curious to know if anything more had happened between Misao and Aoshi after she talked to Misao at lunch.

"Good." Megumi answered first. "Sano was being his annoying self, but other than that my day was fine."

"Same here." Misao added. "I didn't see Aoshi at all though. I didn't expect to though because we don't have any other classes together. I guess I'll see him tomorrow though."

"Oh, that's good." Kaoru said. "Wow it seems like we're all having trouble with boys today." She joked. Once more Misao and Megumi shared an amused glance and the car was filled with giggles. 

"Look! We're here!" Misao bounced up and down pointing to the very large building that had come into view.

"Are you buckled?" Megumi asked, exasperated. "Sit down and put it on now! I don't need to be pulled over you know!" She pushed the small girl down into her seat.  
Misao grumbled as she was forced into her seat and pulled the constraining buckle across her lap.

"We're almost there anyway. Why does it matter so much?" It clicked into place, holding the girl in her seat. 

"Well, for one thing, you could go straight through the windshield of I got hit-" Megumi started.

"You won't. You're a good driver, which you've said yourself on many occasions." Misao pointed out.

"Somebody else might not be such a good driver. I for one don't want to have to tell your parents that you died while I was driving. My parents would never let me drive again either!" Megumi continued. "And like I said before, I don't need to be pulled over either. I don't want a ticket because of you."

"I didn't see any police on the way here. You were fine and my seat belt was off for most of the drive here." Misao argued back.

Kaoru sat back and listened to her friends bicker with a small smile on her face, even as the dreaded prospect of the mall grew on the horizon. 

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Ahh! The ice cream man keeps driving up and down my street. Seriously this has to be the fourth time. The music is driving me nuts and also the urge to go out there and buy some ice cream, but I'm in my pajamas and I'm sick, so I'm stuck listening to the music. 

So, looks like I'm apologizing once again for the lateness and the shortness. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and I'll try to get the next one out as soon as possible. So review please and I'll see you next time!

Keta Himura 


	11. Chapter 10

Hey people! Sorry for the disappearing act! Hopefully that won't happen again.

Reignashii: Sure I'll write more, here you go! 

Mori'quessir: Glad you liked the spiders. I have the biggest fear of spiders in the world. I'm really happy that you love my story too, so here's the update.

Shenyu: Thanks! Someone mentioned that they thought Kenshin and Kaoru were getting along a little too nicely, so I saw a spider and came up with the idea and wrote it.

Kimberlyann: I know, but I can't help agreeing with you. It is adorable. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin.

Warnings: If you hate shopping, then this chapter might not be for you.

Enemies Till The End

Chapter 10

The mall. It was a crowded, large, three story building with more stores than Kaoru cared to count. The place where everyone, especially high school students, gathered to socialize in the after school hours. Students were all over the place, in groups, talking on cell phones, listening to music. All the voices speaking at once caused a hum of noise throughout the building as people moved this way and that.

Kaoru sighed. She was hopeless when it came to the mall. She barely knew where to start, whereas Megumi and Misao immediately headed off in the direction of the clothing stores. She quickly jogged to catch up before she was left behind. 

"So where are we starting?" She asked her two friends. They wordlessly headed towards a large department store, once again leaving Kaoru to hurry after them. They disappeared inside and Kaoru followed. 

Inside there was a myriad of clothing, on shelves, racks and displays. There was also a burst of color and the walls were a shocking white that didn't seem to effect anyone else's eyes the way they did Kaoru's. The music was slightly loud and it was starting to grate on her nerves. 

By the time she found Misao and Megumi among the racks, Megumi had an armful of clothing that was rapidly growing as they both hunted and found clothes for Megumi to try on. 

"Kaoru, go with Megumi to the dressing room and tell her what you think about each outfit." Misao ordered. "You won't be any help to me out here." With that she dove away into another section of the store to look for more clothes. Kaoru followed Megumi into the dressing room. 

The first thing that Megumi came out in was a long, pink skirt and a white tank top. She looked at herself critically in the mirror. "No this won't work unless I can find some kind of sweater. It makes me look so short. What do you think Kaoru?" She asked, turning. 

Truthfully Kaoru couldn't see a problem with the outfit, so what if she looked a little short? "Um, it doesn't look bad. I don't see what's wrong with it." Megumi just stared at her.

"Never mind. It's too plain for me anyway." She went back into the changing room. This continued for about twenty minutes. Megumi coming out, looking into the mirror and declaring something unsatisfactory about the outfit and returning to try something else on. Then Misao showed up. She had another armload of clothing. 

"I searched the shelves, but this is the best. Try these on now and I'll stay to help out." Megumi happily grabbed the clothing and vanished once more. Kaoru groaned mentally. She couldn't see how she had completely forgotten what Misao and Megumi could be like when shopping. She had to admit though, this was the worst she had ever seen them. 

Kaoru tuned out the critiques of every outfit and leaned against the doorframe of the entrance to the dressing room. In the front of the store she could see out to the multitudes of people milling around, looking in windows and talking. There were so many different kinds of people out there and they all seemed to enjoy being here. 

"Okay, let's go pay for this stuff and then on to the next store!" Misao said enthusiastically. Megumi had ended up with the pink skirt, a silky, light purple camisole top and a small sundress which she had insisted on buying even though summer was over two months away.

They walked over to the register where there was a line. 'Oh no.' Was Kaoru's only thought. She cringed when her two friends looked at her.

"Kaoru? Can you stay and pay while me and Misao go look in the next store. Just come and find us there." Megumi asked. 

"Alright." Kaoru said, slightly annoyed. She absolutely hated standing on lines. She was bored very easily. Not even watching the traffic in the hallways of the mall was enough to interest her for more than ten minutes and from the looks of it she might be standing there for longer. She only agreed because of the looks her two friends were giving her and the fact that she was their friend after all. 

"Okay, we'll see you! Thanks!" Megumi said brightly.

"Yeah! Don't get into any trouble!" Misao added as she bounced away with Megumi. 

'Oh joy. Just how I want to spend my afternoon. On a line.' Kaoru thought sarcastically as she watched them cross into another store. 

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"So, now that we have Kaoru in the mall with us I think that we should help her out a little with her wardrobe." Megumi commented as she and Misao hunted through the racks and shelves of the clothing store. 

"I agree. She doesn't dress badly, her clothes are just a little worn. She saves all of the money she makes and barely spends any of it. She keeps talking about saving money for college and books and stuff." Misao added. 

"Well, she only has a summer job at the library and she doesn't make that much. She does babysit though, right? Regularly on the weekends for that one family? The mother owns a restaurant and she has two adorable little girls I think." Megumi said. 

"Yeah." Answered Misao. "Ooo, look at this!" She exclaimed holding up the item.

"Oh, that is nice. You know who would look even better in it? Kaoru. That shade of blue would match her eyes exactly." Megumi told Misao. 

"Hmm. Yeah and if we could find the right top to go with it, she would look really great and I bet that Himura would really appreciate the way she would look in it too." The two girls looked at each other and began hunting once more, this time for something to go with the skirt Misao had just discovered.

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'Oh man. Seriously how long can one line be?' Kaoru groaned to herself. 'Seriously, it's a school night. What is everyone doing at the mall? What about homework and all that kind of stuff?' 'Well, you are at the mall yourself.' She countered. 'Oh butt out.' She told the more sensible part of her mind. 'It's not as if I want to be here.' 'But isn't it better than doing homework?' She argued back. Kaoru shook her head. 'I'm going crazy, arguing with myself.'

"I can help the next person on line." Kaoru looked up at the voice to see how many people were left in front of her. She found the sales woman looking straight at her.

"Oh, sorry about that." She walked up to the counter and laid the clothes on the top. She pulled them off the hangers and folded them as the lady rang them up and then she paid. 

She walked out of the store. Hopefully Megumi and Misao would still be in the store she had seen them enter earlier. If not, there was no way she was going to hunt them down. 

She spotted them near the back of the store. Surprisingly they didn't have armloads of clothes either. 

"Hey guys." She said, walking up to them. "That line was never ending. The people in front of me just had to have conversations with the saleslady that took forever. I thought that they would never stop talking." 

"Okay, in you go." It was Misao who shoved her in the direction of the changing rooms. 

"What are you doing?" Kaoru yelped as she was pulled along.

"You're going to try something on." Megumi said as she tugged the shopping bag out of Kaoru's hand. "And you're not allowed to argue with us. Just do it." 

Kaoru found herself in one of the small changing rooms with a few items of clothing in her arms. She looked at them and saw that they were her style clothing. Thank goodness they weren't trying to force her into something that she would never have picked off the shelves herself. 'I might as well get this over with.' She thought to herself and pulled the first thing off the top of the pile.

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Misao and Megumi were waiting outside the changing room door for Kaoru to emerge.

"Are you coming out of there?" Misao asked loudly. 

"Yeah, yeah." They both heard Kaoru mutter.

"Well, hurry up. I'm getting bored out here." 

"Now you know how it feels." They heard Kaoru counter as she opened up the door. She was wearing the blue skirt that Misao had found and it was perfect. 

"Oh wow Kaoru." Megumi said. "That looks great on you!" And it did. The fabric was the same sapphire color of Kaoru's eyes. It swirled around to just above her knees and flared outward, making her legs look longer than they actually were. The material clung to her hips, accentuating the small curves she had. A pure white ribbon was also wrapped around and tied in a delicate bow, the ends trailing down to swirl with the skirt. Misao had found the perfect shirt to go with it. A plain white boat neck, with three quarter sleeves. Although the outfit was quite simple, it made Kaoru look quite elegant. 

"Yeah, Megumi's right Kaoru. You look amazing!" Misao added.

"Thanks guys. But I have one question. What happened to finding an outfit for Megumi?" She asked them quizzically. 

"Oh that, we have loads of time." Megumi said casually. 

"Really?" Kaoru asked. "Well I don't know about you guys, but I seriously don't want to spend the rest of the day here. Sorry, but I'm starting to think that I might be a little claustrophobic and I wanted to make dinner for my family tonight." She told them.

"Kaoru, first of all, you can't be claustrophobic in a mall, especially this one. It's so open and when you're claustrophobic that means you don't like small spaces." Kaoru sniffed at that, but didn't say anything. "And second, I think that Yahiko, Sano and your dad will thank us if we stopped you from making dinner." Misao told her.

"Come on! What is so bad about my cooking? Really?" Kaoru asked indignantly as she threw her arms in the air.

"Nothing, nothing, it's fine." Megumi soothed and ushered Kaoru back into the changing room. "Change and come back out, okay?" She pushed her in.

"Why'd you tell her that?" Misao asked Megumi when she knew that Kaoru wouldn't come out of the small room. "I know that you complain the most whenever she cooks." They both laughed quietly when they heard the annoyed huff coming from behind the door.

"Let's pick up the pace Kaoru!" Megumi called. "You're the one who wants to get out of here!" She had to skip back quickly when the door popped open rather violently. Before Kaoru could do anything she was yanked to the front of the store where Misao scooped up the clothes and deposited them on the counter to pay. Then they exited the store and headed for the escalators. 

"Hey Misao! Why'd you do that?" Kaoru asked as Misao shoved the bag into her arms. "I don't know if I can afford it." She started.

"It's a gift from Meg and me. Wear it wisely, you'll know when the time comes to wear it." Misao replied cryptically before she and Megumi burst out laughing. Kaoru looked at the two of them.

"Why do I feel like I'm missing something?" She asked plaintively.

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Kaoru was dragged into a few more stores where Misao put her to use running back and forth from the shelves to get the correct sizes or grab something that she remembered that she thought would go perfect with this or that. 

"Hey, guys?" She knew that Megumi had found the perfect outfit a while ago. "Don't you think it's about time that we leave, I mean, how many things can you buy in one trip to the mall? Personally I think that you're doing this just to torture me." 

"Well," Megumi drew out the word. "Yeah, I guess we could go, but I think that we should stop and get dinner on the way home. 

"That's a good idea! I'm starving!" Misao agreed. Kaoru opened her mouth to speak, but Megumi cut her off.

"I know you wanted to make dinner, but we can just pick something up for them and take it back to your place, how about that?" Kaoru couldn't argue. Instead she only sighed.

"For that we're going to need to get pizza." She told them. 

"Oh, yum! I haven't had pizza in a while! We can get the chicken fries and zeppilies too!" Misao was in heaven and she took off running for the parking lot.

"Yeah, well I've been having pizza way too much lately." Kaoru muttered glancing down at her stomach as she started after Misao, hoping that the hyper weasel hadn't hurt herself.

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"Hey, I'm home!" Kaoru called out the ritual greeting that everbody in her family used to announce their presence. 

"In here!" She heard her dad call from the living room. There she found Yahiko and her father watching an old movie on tv. 

"I got dinner," She started apologetically, "I know I said I would make something but-" Geez people seemed to love to cut her off today.

"It's no problem, you can do it another time." Koshijirou said standing up to help relieve the girls of the food. "We might actually have leftovers tonight. Sano's out with the boys. At least we know there'll be enough for everyone." He laughed. 

"I don't know about that. Yahiko is definitely on his way to out-eating Sano one of these days." Misao joked. 

"Hey, weasel girl you could out-eat both me and Sano you know!" Yahiko said indignantly. 

"That was mean, shortie." Misao said, smacking him on the top of his head as she walked by. The humorous thing about this comment was the fact that Yahiko was nearly the same height as Misao. Kaoru knew to stay away from the shortie comments when she was arguing with Yahiko seeing as she was barely taller than Misao.

"Come and eat you two!" That was all it took and they both dashed for the table, Yahiko's similarity to Sano was obvious, but Misao's?

As they were eating, Koshijirou asked the fatal question. "So, how did the shopping go?" To say he immediately regretted his decision was an understatement. As Kaoru listened to her two friends go over every little detail of their day, all she could think was, 'Poor Dad.'

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Hey everyone! School is now officially over for me and it's vacation time! Sorry I didn't update, but I was having trouble with this chapter and then finals came up and my mom banned me from the computer until I was done with them. Of the four finals I had to take, three of them were regents. Dumb New York. We're the only state that has tests like that. This chapter was giving me a lot of trouble for some strange reason and I apologize for any glaring mistakes in advance. Maybe the fact that I don't spend that much time in the mall made it trickier to write. Geeky as it sounds, I love the library and bookstores. But when I got going, I just kept adding more and more random stuff to it and it turned out to be longer than I expected so I also apologize if it seems a little mismatched to you. I also didn't think that I was actually going to make it to my tenth chapter either once I started having trouble writing it. Oh well, enjoy!  
Just to let everyone know for next time I'm going to be writing under my new penname, Konzert, so it'll be different for chapter eleven. 

Keta Himura 


	12. Chapter 11

Blooded wyngs: I know it was a little boring and this one might be boring for you to because I'm focusing it more on Misao and Aoshi, but I promise that Kenshin and Kaoru will be coming soon!

Kimberlyann: I might be able to write and sound like I have a good sense of fashion, but I really don't. I just about live in jeans and t-shirts in the winter and shorts and t-shirts in the summer. But thanks anyway!

Animelover11368: Thanks a lot! Um, you'll see what Kenshin wanted to talk to Kaoru about soon I think. 

Mori'quessir: I started working on this chapter right after I posted the last one. There's no shopping in this one, so you don't have to worry. 

PunKrocKergrl: I have some other stuff going on before we get to everything with Kaoru and Kenshin, but I am so glad that you liked it! Thanks for reviewing! 

Enemies Till The End Chapter 11

Kaoru was watching Misao closely. Her friend was do something funny with her hands, trying to make Kaoru understand something. She shaped them into undistinguishable forms and shapes, possibly bearing resemblance to letters. Kaoru frowned. Now Misao was mouthing words at her. That was no good. She had never been able to read lips very well. The motions she was making now took on a slight bit of familiarity. 'The way she's moving her fingers seems like it could be someone walking.' Kaoru thought, absently. She tapped her fingers along the edge of her jaw as she glanced at her friends hands once more. 'Hmm.' 

She gave up and looked down at the finished test before her. An annoyed hiss came from the seat ahead. Why Misao needed to talk to her so badly in the middle of a test was confusing her. What couldn't wait until after class? Misao knew that Kaoru would never help her to cheat. Besides from the looks of it, Misao was done with the test as well. Actually, knowing Misao and her current problem, it was probably about Aoshi. 

"Is there a problem girls?" The teacher asked forbiddingly from the front of the room. He was sitting at his desk, eyeing them over the top of his large newspaper. He didn't fold it over like she had often seen her father do. It seemed inconvenient to her, really. Who wanted to hold their hands that far apart and it had also caused him to come close to spilling his coffee on numerous occasions. Maybe he did it more for the effect than anything else. It was a little ominous to look up and see a wide expanse of black and white print with a pair of eyes, hidden behind severe looking glasses just visible above the top. Then again, most of the other students saw it as an opportunity to quickly compare answers before subsiding back to their tests. Why he had to look up just now, when Misao just had to be acting weird, was anybody's guess. 

"There's no problem." She replied hoping that that would get her butt off the line. He harrumphed and turned back to the paper, shaking it threateningly. As soon as his nose was buried within its folds again, Misao turned back to Kaoru. Really, couldn't she get the hint? Mr. Kodama had even caught her and she still insisted on trying to communicate in a strange form of sign language. Amusing as it was to watch her, it was getting a little frustrating. Kaoru seemed to be that a lot these days. That's what you get though when you have friends like Megumi and Misao and then had to deal with two immature brothers and their annoying friends. 

'Oh good. It looks like Misao has finally given up.' Kaoru thought to herself when Misao turned back to her own desk, but she was wrong. 'Oh brilliant. Now she wants to pass notes like we're still in middle school or something.' The note caught her between the eyes as Misao punted it to her, across her desk. Kaoru glared at Misao, who smiled innocently back and then, after a long suffering sigh she unfolded the small note. 

When she read it's contents she glared even harder at her little weasel friend. She rolled her eyes, of course that was what the note would be about, scratched back her reply and tapped her friend on the head with her pencil and handed the note back. Misao read it and let out a small, muffled squeal of happiness and took a long time in replying. When it was tossed back to her, Kaoru opened the note to see THANKS in huge capital, bold letters with small decorations all around it. Kaoru started giggling at the silliness of her friend, before she remembered herself and clapped a hand over her mouth and quickly slid the note into her book bag. 

"Once more, is there something wrong Ms. Kamiya?" The hostile voice rang out once more from the front of the room. 

"Ah, no, no. There's nothing wrong. I umm… got the hiccups. I just need something to drink and I'll be fine." Kaoru quickly said, knowing how ridiculous it sounded, even to her own ears. She bent over and reached into her bag for the water bottle she kept tucked in there. She shuddered delicately at the remembrance of the huge spider from yesterday and then pushed that thought out of the way. 

Water bottles had proved to be very useful to carry around. It worked well for any sudden prank ideas, like the simple one she had pulled the other week. She had opened up the bottle and walked by Kenshin's desk. She tripped and landed right on top of him, making sure the water spilled completely down his entire front. 

She had gotten damp as well, but the look on his face was worth it. He had been so surprised and she had been laughing so hard that neither of them had noticed that Kaoru was still in his lap. Water was one of the top tools when it came to pranking. Too bad that he and Sano had gotten them back with the water balloons. She had gotten much more wet from that then he had from her small sprinkling of water.

Kaoru doodled on the margin of the test while waiting and then erased them, knowing that Mr. Kodama always looked or any excuse to take off points. When the bell rang, she, along with the rest of the class got up and filed past the teachers desk, dropping off their test papers. She caught up with Misao and pulled on the back of her shirt. 

"I cannot believe that you had to ask me that in the middle of class." She spoke. Misao blushed.

"I didn't want to forget to ask you. You know me. I need to do something before I burst. I'm really nervous, but I have to talk to him. Anyway, thanks for doing this for me." 

"No problem. I'm going to find Sano now and then I'll talk to you after next period or after school, okay?" Kaoru walked down the hallway towards the spiky hair she could see above the rest of the heads at the other end. 

"SANO!" She called. He was standing with a bunch of other guys. They did not look like good news, but her brother had always been one to get into trouble. She would just yank him away for a chat. "I need to talk to you." She grabbed a fistful of his shirt and dragged him away.

"HEY! What is wrong with you?" He protested as he was pulled away from the group, the other boys sniggering behind their hands. Good, he needed to be humiliated a little. It was even better that it was being done by her, a girl, a whole lot shorter, who just happened to be his sister.

"Nothing. I thought you promised to stay away from that crowd, Sano." She started. At his mouth opening, she waved her hand and broke in. "Whatever. It's your fault if you get into trouble. I need to ask you something about Aoshi."

"I thought that weasel girl had the hots for him. What kind off friend are you, taking him away like that?" Sano joked earning a smack across the back of the head.

"Shut up. I need to know where he's going to be after school. Just tell me alright. It's for Misao. She has no idea what Aoshi wants from her and she doesn't know what to do either." Kaoru spoke. Sano just looked confused. He knew that there was something missing, but didn't bother to ask. It wasn't a good idea to get involved. 

"Whatever. I think he's staying after for some newspaper thing. He's not hanging out with me after school or Kenshin that I know of. Then he normally walks home." He scratched the back of his head. 

"Thanks." She pushed by him. "Don't be late for class, roosterhead!" She called over her shoulder. 

"Yeah, yeah." He muttered as the bell rang and he jogged towards his classroom. 

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"Okay, Misao. Sano told me that Aoshi will be walking home after going to a meeting for the school newspaper. I don't think that he was entirely sure, but that's the best I can do. Unless you want me to ask Himura. I will suffer through talking to him just for you, you know." Kaoru told her friend as they met quickly in the hallway before the last period. "I have him in my next class anyway, so it wouldn't be inconvenient for me, well, not too inconvenient. Just talking to him is an inconvenience, but that doesn't matter that much." 

"Would you really?" Misao was almost jumping from happiness.

"Yeah, sure. What are friends for anyway?" Kaoru said. Then, "Are you sure that you want to talk to him? I mean it's only been a day. Maybe he still needs time to think." She said hesitantly. She wanted to add that she thought Misao might not like Aoshi's answers, but stopped herself. Her friend would be fine and hopefully she could handle anything. She didn't need to mother her. 

"I want to though. He clearly avoided me today in class, well, not really clearly, it was more subtle, then again sitting all the way across the room isn't exactly that subtle is it? I mean only a really dense person wouldn't have realized, but I'm not that stupid. You don't think that he thinks that I'm dumb, do you? I mean, I'm not exactly the brightest in the class, but I'm pretty smart, I can get by-"

"Misao, calm down, you're rambling. Everything will be fine. Go to class and meet me by my locker after school okay? And remember to breath and don't hyperventilate or anything on me okay? Okay. Now go." Kaoru shoved Misao in the direction of her next class, before turning to go to her own. 

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"Himura." Kaoru said before she sat down. 

"What?" He asked, just as shortly, looking up at her. 

"Do you know where Aoshi's going to be after school?" She questioned, her voice slightly cold. There was no way he would be forgiven for the spider incident from yesterday. At least, not until she got him back and gave him exactly what he deserved for that. 

"Why?" He matched her tone. Neither one was going to give up. 

"You don't need to know. Don't worry nothing's going to happen to him." She said. 

"Whatever. I think he's got something going on with the newspaper. I think he writes a small article or something. He'll probably walk home." Kenshin replied, leaning back in his chair and looking up to the front of the classroom.

"Don't be late to the library after school today." Were Kaoru's parting words as she made her way to her desk and sat down just before the teacher entered the room. 

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"So?"

"I'm almost positive that he'll be at the newspaper thing." Kaoru paused. "What are you going to do, ambush him on the way home?"

"I don't know. Probably." Misao looked worried. Apparently she hadn't thought anything out besides the fact that she wanted to talk to Aoshi as soon as possible.

"Well, good luck. I hope that everything goes okay for you." Kaoru told Misao earnestly. She hoped for her friend's sake that everything would go well.

123

Misao sat idly on the school steps. She was apprehensive, but that had never stopped her before. She could also feel the trickle of nervousness that found its way to the pit of her stomach. But she was determined to do this. She wanted to find out really badly. 

She couldn't sit still. She had been waiting twenty minutes, but she knew that it could take much longer. She just wanted to make sure that she didn't miss him. Students were still trickling out of the building and she hadn't seen him leave, so she assumed that he was still in the building. She tapped her feet to an unheard beat and bobbed her head to the tune that fluttered through her head. 

"Hey Misao." Megumi had walked up to her friend. She was carrying some books.

"Hi Megumi." Misao looked up at her friend. "Were you in the library?" She glanced at the books.

"Yes, actually. I had Kaoru's help because Kenshin hadn't shown up and she was starting to get ticked off with him. I took her mind off the annoyance and had her use her time usefully." Megumi replied. "Then I did you a favor." She paused. Megumi could be dramatic when she wanted to be. 

"What?" Misao asked after a few seconds, knowing that Megumi wanted her to ask.

"I went by the room that the newspaper meeting was being held in. Aoshi's there so you have nothing to worry about. I slipped in there and asked one of the other students how long that he thought the meeting was going to be. He thought that it would be forty-five minutes to an hour." She told Misao. 

"Oh man. I don't know how much longer I can sit here for. I guess I could work on some homework, but that just stinks." Misao pouted. 

"Well, you have about fifteen minutes to a half an hour." Megumi replied. "I know you were talking about a short story for Creative Writing. Didn't you like that class? I thought you were excited about that assignment." 

"You have a point." Misao said. "I guess I could work on a few ideas for that." She pulled a notebook and pen out. "Thanks for the help." She squinted upwards.

"No problem. Just call and let me know how everything goes. I know that Kaoru's going to want to know too." Megumi started walking don the sidewalk. "Good luck!" She called over her shoulder. Misao gave a half-hearted wave in thanks.

'Now, let's get to work on some ideas.' She thought to herself and glanced down at the empty notebook page. 'I should be able to come up with something good.'

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About twenty minutes later…

Misao was on a roll. She had brainstormed a few ideas and decided on one of her favorites. She had started working on the characters when she was knocked out of her concentration by running footsteps and a voice.

"Misao!" Kaoru called as she nearly fell down the front steps in her haste to get to her friend. "Misao!"

"Yeah, yeah. I heard you the first time Kaoru. You practically stampeded down the hallway." Misao said, irritably. 

"There's no time! You wanted to talk to Aoshi today, right?" Kaoru grabbed a hold of Misao's hand and began tugging her around the school. Misao snatched up her notebook and bag just in time. 

"Yeah. What's the big idea?" Misao asked.

"He just left through one of the side doors. You're going to have to run if you want to catch up with him." Kaoru exclaimed. 

Suddenly Misao wasn't so sure. To waylay him on the school steps didn't seem so bad, but to chase after him… She just didn't know. "Is this a good idea?" She suddenly questioned. "I mean I could always do this tomorrow."

"NO!" Kaoru yelled once more. "You can't procrastinate with something like this! You'll never do it. You have the conviction to do it now, so you will. You might not be so brave tomorrow if you've had more time to think and you're already not sure about it. You have to do it today!"

"OKAY!" Misao shouted. "Do you know which way he went?"

"He went down that path. Hurry up!" Kaoru pushed her friend in the right direction.

"Thanks Kaoru!" With that, Misao took off running.

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Okay, I know, I know. There was barely any KK action. Sorry, but I wanted to get this out first. I promise that the next chapter will have them in it more. This chapter was easier for me to write and I've already started on the next chapter, so unless I have some unexpected problems that one should follow this one fairly quickly. I know that Misao is one year younger than Kaoru, but some classes mix the grades together, so it's just one of those classes. Just in case anyone noticed. I hope that everyone is having a nice summer. I know I am and my proof is the sunburn I've got all over my shoulders and legs. Leave a review and enjoy!

Konzert 


	13. Chapter 12

Hey everyone! Enjoy the chapter. Review responses are at the bottom. 

Disclaimer : I don't own Rurouni Kenshin. 

Enemies Till The End

Chapter 12

Earlier…

Kaoru watched her friend run towards the main entrance. She sighed and hoped for the best before turning to walk in the other direction. She and Kenshin still had their project to finish and if they could get a good hour and a half in of work they would be halfway done. That was, if he got there on time, which she hoped that he could manage this time even though she knew better. 

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"Sano, this had better be good." Kenshin stated as he and his tall friend rounded the back corner of the school. "I was supposed to meet with your sister in the library and she is going to murder me if I'm later than I already am." He stopped. They had come face to face with the woods behind the school. Kenshin now knew exactly what Sano wanted him to do. 

"Come on Kenshin. I really need some help with this." Sano said plaintively. 

"Sano, no. I already got in trouble for this, in school and out, which is going to happen to you. I'm not about to start it up again." Kenshin said stubbornly. "Anyway, I really don't want to die at such an early age and your sister is really going to hurt me for being late, at the least." 

"You were the best Kenshin. If you could just help me out a little." Sano tried to wheedle his friend into helping him. 

"I'm sorry Sano. You know that if you needed help with just about anything else, I would help you. You should see if Aoshi will help you. I don't know if he has any qualms about gambling." Kenshin replied. "Now I have to get going or I'm a dead man. I'll see you later." Kenshin walked off towards the school building. 

"Yeah." Sano answered, looking at the woods before heading off in another direction. Maybe he would try some other time. When he could find Aoshi or anybody else.

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Karou was tapping her foot impatiently. Five minutes and counting. The clock ticked, counting the seconds, and the hand moving the minutes along slowly. 'He is dead when he gets here.' Six minutes. 'He should definitely know better by now.' Six minutes and thirty seconds. 'Definite-'

"Hey Kaoru!" came a voice from right beside her ear. Kaoru squeaked a the unexpected sound and jumped. She fell right out of her seat from fright, landing on the thin carpeting of the hard library floor. Loud laughter rang out at Kaoru's reaction, but was quickly stifled to giggles as the librarian sent a glare in their direction. Kaoru looked up at the person who had surprised her, knowing who it was from the laughter before she had even seen the person. 

"That wasn't funny Megumi." She stated calmly, taking her friend's proffered hand and allowed herself to be pulled up into a standing position. She swiped at her pants, dusting herself off. 

"You have to admit that it was slightly amusing." Megumi replied. She was carrying a bag and holding a piece of paper in her hand. This was unusual for her, seeing as she followed the recent trend of carrying her schoolbooks around instead of putting them in a bag like any other sensible person would do. 

"Why are you in the library?" Kaoru asked. You didn't often see her in the school library. She typically went to the public one where people wouldn't recognize her as easily. When asked about her behavior she only muttered something about maintaining an image. Oh well. Kaoru knew that Megumi's studies were important to her because she needed good grades for the medical school she planned on attending after high school. 

"You know the English project? I'm here for that too. It's just, your stupid idiotic brother told me that I could do the whole thing on my own because there was no way that I could rope him into going to the library and that he didn't have the brains to do it. Not that I don't believe it, but he would have been useful for looking for these books that we're going to need." Megumi explained. 

"How did you end up working with him? I thought that you two were in different classes." Kaoru asked, slightly confused.

"Well, I wasn't assigned a partner in class. When I went up to ask about it the teacher told me that your brother currently has just below a failing average. She thought I might be able to help him. She's been doing that with a few of her students; having the smarter ones help out the failing kids so they can pull their averages up. I wonder if she thought the situation out. I mean, she had to know that things would end up like this, only one person doing the work."

"Yeah, I know. Kenshin's always late, but at least he does do some of the work and it's actually pretty good too, which I will never tell him, but I have no idea why he's doing poorly in that class. Anyway, wait until I tell my dad that little bit of info about Sano. I'm almost positive he hasn't heard about this little development yet. Actually, scratch that, this material is good enough for blackmail." Kaoru mused aloud.

"I knew that you would appreciate it." Megumi smiled. She may be going out with Sano tomorrow night, but she could still torture him if she wanted to. "Now, since you're waiting, do you want to give me a hand with finding some of these books? It's a pain to have to do on my own." Megumi asked. 

"Yeah, sure. I've got nothing better to do till Kenshin gets here. Then I'll be able to yell at him. It's fun. That's the only good thing about him coming late. His facial expressions can be so amusing when he's nervous or scared." Kaoru told Megumi who had a look of amusement on her face. 

"You know," She started shrewdly, "sometimes you two remind me of an old, married couple. The way you two carry on sometimes, I mean really. I know for a fact that a lot of other people think so too, despite the fact that you are constantly at each other's throats." Kaoru looked at her horrified at the thought.

"That was cruel. You shouldn't tell me things like that. It's not good for my health. I think I almost had a heart attack when you said that." Kaoru told her friend, dramatically putting a hand over her heart. "I fail to see how that could even be possible. How you could even come up with a concept like that astounds me."

"Really? It wasn't that hard." Before Kaoru could say anything else though, Megumi continued. "Okay, then. Help me find these books." Kaoru had failed to hear the sarcasm in Megumi's first comment and happily set off into the shelves to hunt down the needed books.

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"I'll see you later Kaoru. I have to do one last thing before I go home." Megumi said. She had just finished checking out a sizeable amount of books and was trying to fit most of them into the book bag that she had bought along.

"What do you have to do?" Kaoru asked absently, somewhat curious.

"I'm doing our favorite weasel a favor." Megumi replied. "I'm just going to go check in on that newspaper meeting and see how it's going." She hefted the bag onto her shoulder. "She's waiting out on the front steps, right?" 

"Yup. Hopefully she'll still be there. We both know that she's not the most patient person, but Aoshi, she would wait for him for a long time." Kaoru said. Megumi sighed as she caught the double meaning behind the other girl's words.

"Yes, well, hopefully that can be remedied today. I have to go, but I'll talk to you tonight. I'll remind weasel girl to give you a call." With that, Megumi pushed open the library door. She was halfway out when she looked back. "And here comes your favorite person, Kaoru. You should go easy on him." And she was out the door and walking down the hallway.

"Be careful. She's only a little infuriated. Try not to provoke her any further. Oh and a warning, she's also still upset about yesterday's events too. You should be expecting retribution for that sometime in the near future." Megumi spoke casually as she passed Kenshin in the hallway outside the library, not even making eye contact with him.

"Thanks for the advice." He muttered in reply, peering through the library windows cautiously. "But I know that she's more than infuriated right now." He kept talking even though he knew that Megumi had left. "She's probably enraged. That's not exactly the best thing. I should really try to get on her good side if I ever want her to talk to me without yelling. It's starting to become a bad habit. But it's better that she doesn't know that." He pushed the door open as slowly and as quietly as possible. He practically tiptoed into the room, trying to hide himself and his conspicuous flaming hair behind a bookshelf before looking into the rest of the room. Strangely, she wasn't anywhere in sight. 

'Where would she be.' He thought to himself. 'I see her things on that table over in the corner. She's probably somewhere looking for some sort of book.' He moved further into the room, as cautiously as possible, when he felt a sudden yank on his hair from behind.

"Looking for me?" Came the voice he dreaded hearing. Kaoru stood behind him, with a firm grasp on his hair. Kenshin gulped. She didn't usually look this dangerous. "Because I am right here. I can't believe that you were scared enough to sneak in here. What can I do to you?" She asked with some humor. Kenshin decided that it would be best not to answer her question. He thought that it had been rhetorical anyway. "I was standing at the desk the whole time watching you make a fool of yourself, trying to get in here quietly. It was most amusing. It has, to some extent, put me in the slightest bit of a better mood. I'll feel even better when I've had an explanation." She yanked on his hair again.

"Geeze. Calm down. You're ripping my hair out of my scalp." He complained loudly. She only pulled it again, but loosened her grip slightly, afterwards.

"So? Do you have any kind of explanation to give me?" She demanded, now pulling him towards the table that she had spread their things out on, much to the disproval of the librarian because of Kaoru's grasp on Kenshin's hair.

"Umm. I lost track of the time?" It was said cautiously as a question.

"Not good enough. Try something else." Kaoru shoved him into a seat and sat down next to him. She folded her arms and did, what Kenshin thought, was a very good impression of Mr. Kodama at his most intimidating. 

"I had to talk to a teacher?" Kaoru didn't even deem the words worthy enough for an answer and only gave him a withering glare that proclaimed 'tell me another one.' So he complied.

"It was your brother's fault." He had decided to lay the blame entirely on Sano. That got her attention.

"What did he do?" She asked.

"I can't say. Sorry, but he's more important and I think I know how to handle a temper tantrum from you by now. I'm used to them." 'Uh oh. Maybe that hadn't been the best thing to say out loud. Thoughts should stay thoughts.' He berated himself as Kaoru's face started to get extremely red. "But then again I have a headache right now and I don't know if I can handle the yelling, so I guess I could tell you a little bit." He added quickly, trying to save himself from certain death.

"Hmm. I know a way to make that headache go away." Kaoru said thoughtfully. She reached over and smacked him across the top of his head. Rather hard too he had to say, at least for a girl. Then again, he already knew that. "Now explain yourself or you can do the project on your own." She threatened.

"First of all," Kenshin said. "Hitting me was completely unnecessary. Second of all, you won't make me do it on my own because if you did you would end up with a grade that will be less than satisfactory and you wouldn't be able to handle a grade like that bringing down your average. Lastly, your brother wanted me to do something for him. All you need to know is that I said no to him and that I told him that he shouldn't do it either. Then I walked away because I knew that I had to be here, even if I wasn't on time and I know that he followed my advice and went home too." Kenshin rushed through the last part of his explanation. Kaoru glared back, knowing that what he said was true, but also wanting to demand a better explanation. She knew that Kenshin wasn't going to give in though. It was time to accept defeat without letting the enemy think that he had won. 

"Fine. We have work to get done and it needs to be ready for tomorrow's class. She's going to be checking the progress we've made so far." Kaoru tugged out a book, that was stuck between the rest of the snuggly packed books, that she had checked out the library the other day and held it out to him. 

Kenshin took the book and flipped it open to the page that she had marked. He looked at her bookmark with amusement. It was an old photograph. "That was the party that Sano had for your tenth birthday." He said quietly to Kaoru. "If I remember correctly that was where we met Aoshi for the first time." He added. She leaned over his arm to get a closer to look at the picture.

"Mm hm. I've had that picture lying around on my desk for awhile. I needed it for something, but I forget what. Anyway, that's one of the only pictures I could find that had everyone in it looking happy and smiling and not fighting with each other. It makes a good bookmark though." Kaoru answered. "That's also the first time that Misao ever saw Aoshi, so that day is historic in her books as well as everyone else's. You do remember how she acted when she saw him."

"Yup. That's clear as a bell. We were standing on the line for that water slide and he was in front of us."

"Yeah. Megumi wasn't too happy about that ride." Kaoru added, remembering Megumi's sick looking face. She had thought that only rollercoasters affected people that way.

"Yeah. Then he turned around and Misao couldn't stop staring at him. She didn't even notice that he was looking right back at her. Then she introduced herself and didn't stop talking to him for the rest of the day." Kenshin remembered the funny memory.

"Yeah she dragged him onto every single ride in the place. That is certainly a day that everyone will never forget. But I also remember you boys thought that it would be amusing to push us all of us girls into the pool as well. With all of our clothes still on too." Kaoru added.

"Yeah, well what did you expect us to do? It wouldn't have been funny if you had had your bathing suits on. And did it matter that much anyway? No. We were at a water park. Everyone walks around in their bathing suits there." Kenshin said, explaining his ten year old self's motives.

"Whatever. Get to work." Kaoru responded, taking the picture out of his hands and pushing the book under his nose. 

123

They did not work for long, however. It had only been about fifteen minutes before Kaoru, who had been thinking something over and staring idly out of the library windows at some sort of poster on the hall wall, saw a person walk past. This person was a person who should have been walking in a different direction. 

'That can't be good.' Kaoru thought as she stood up without a thought and moved towards the library doors. She peered out in time to see Aoshi walking towards one of the many side doors in the school building. 'Really not good.'

"What're you doing?" Kenshin asked from behind her, startling her into letting the door shut with a bang. The librarian must really hate her by now. 

"Nothing." Kaoru said, but before she could elaborate, Kenshin spoke.

"Then why were you staring at Aoshi? This has something to do with why you wanted to know where he was going to be after school before, doesn't it?"

"Yes, but I don't have time for explanations right now. I have to go and tell Misao. If you really need to know I'll tell you when I get back. I'll be back in a few minutes." Kaoru spoke and ran off towards the front of the school. 

Kenshin was left with an annoyed look on his face as he raked a hand through his hair. She was really annoying, confusing, irritating and a whole other bunch of disconcerting things that he did not need to think about right now. That stuff only got in the way and he needed to concentrate on the project. She wouldn't be happy if he didn't get some of it done while she was gone. It was better for both of them if she just stayed happy. 

123

Blooded wyngs : Sorry, but I like the whole AM romance, which is what will most likely going to be occurring. Here is some more KK interaction, though. It's going to be going a little slowly because of their current relationship, I mean they're barely friends. I don't want them to all of a sudden fall in love. It's going to take a little more time. I hope that you'll still read and enjoy the story though and thanks for the honest opinion. 

Microburst#16 : Thanks for reviewing! You seem to be the only one who thought that Complicated Love would be a good idea, but I'm working on writing The Day Care Center. I want it to be more organized than this story is. 

Kitty-jinxx : Yeah I agree about the millipede. Thanks for reviewing and it makes me happy to know that you love the story. 

Mori'quessir : Okay, thank you. Here is some KK interaction.

PunKrocKergrl : You'll see. Thanks for understanding. There are going to be chapters where things will go a little slow. I hope I'll make up for that this chapter. 

Miharu Kawashi : Thanks for reviewing. I'm glad that you like it a lot because that makes me happy. 

Okey dokey. I'm done. I hope that it wasn't too confusing because I changed the viewpoints around without really telling anyone. Next chapter Kaoru will explain things and we'll see what happens with Misao. I don't think that my next update will be out until the end of next week. I have a friend coming to visit, so I'll be spending a lot of time with her and I won't have that much time to work on the next chapter. So, leave a review and enjoy!

Konzert 


	14. Chapter 13

HI PEOPLE! Review Responses are going to remain on the bottom from now on. Enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer : I don't own Rurouni Kenshin

Enemies Till The End

Chapter 13

Kaoru watched her friend run away for the second time that day. She hoped that this time her friend would have more success in her endeavors. Misao disappeared around the far corner and Kaoru turned back to the school. 

Kenshin was waiting impatiently for Kaoru to come back from wherever she had run off to. He had done some work, but his curiosity was getting the better of him. He wanted to know what was going on and what it had to do with his good friend. Knowing Kaoru as well as he did, he wouldn't put it past her to be staging some gigantic prank. Misao would be the perfect candidate for pulling one over on him. He knew that Aoshi harbored a weak spot for her ever since that day at the water park. 

Kaoru entered the library. Kenshin was in a chair, leaning back against one of the bookshelves. The plastic chair looked like it was straining under the pressure being applied to it. 'It would be funny if that chair just happened to break from the pressure or at least pop out from under him.' She thought to herself and started to form a plan. 'The least that'll happen is he hits his head and that only leaves a bump. He can deal with that.' 

She stealthily moved forward, from the side and saw that his eyes were closed. Kaoru glanced over her shoulder. The librarian was nowhere in sight. Hopefully she was in one of the back rooms, busy with something for the next few minutes because she would be sure to kick them out of the library for this. 

Kaoru reached out and prepared to kick the legs out from under the chair, when Kenshin's eyes suddenly opened and he grabbed her wrist. It was too late though. The chair slid down and Kenshin went with it, but so did Kaoru. She landed right on his chest, pushing the breath right out of him. Kaoru was the one who wound up hitting her head on the hard library floor. She looked up, slightly disorientated from the fall. 

"Oh man." She groaned and reached up to feel her head. That was definitely going to leave a bump. She closed her eyes. The floor was moving at a funny angle underneath her and she attempted to clear her head. 

"Get off." Came a voice from under her. Apparently Kenshin had gotten his breath back. "Your brother is so right. You weigh a ton." Kaoru gasped. 'That jerk!'

"You know I think that I'm comfortable where I am right now." She told him. "I don't know if I can get up at the moment anyway, so you'll just have to endure my weight for a little while longer." She shifted, digging her elbow into his stomach, causing him to let out a groan of pain.

"Damn it. What was that for? And if you don't want us to get in trouble you'll get up and off me right now. The librarian only left for a few minutes and she's going to be back soon." He told her, trying to push her up and off him. His hand slipped, hitting her on the forehead, where her bump had decided to grow. Kaoru hissed in pain and grabbed her head, as if pushing against the spot would help prevent the pain. Kenshin pushed himself up all the way and grabbed Kaoru before she could fall and hit the ground again. "What'd you do to yourself anyway? This is all your fault. Stupid. Did you really think that I was asleep?" He asked.

"Well, it didn't matter if you were asleep or not. It still would have been funny to see you fall." Kaoru muttered, holding her hand to her forehead. 

"Oh well. Get off me, alright?" Kaoru got up and brushed herself off. She pointedly turned away from Kenshin and the fallen chair. 'How is it that I keep ending up on the library floor?' She thought to herself and shook her head. Kenshin picked up the chair and they were reseating themselves just as the librarian walked in, a folder of papers in her hand.

"I told you." Kenshin mumbled to her.

"So?" Kaoru whispered back.

"So, we probably would have been kicked out for disturbing her. I mean there's barely anyone else in here." Kenshin said. "We wouldn't have been able to finish our work and it would have been all your fault." 

"Whatever." Kaoru responded. She looked down at the mess of papers in front of her. "What did you do anyway?"

"What did I do?"

"It's a mess. This isn't what I left these piles of papers looking like. What did you do, what did you touch?" Kaoru asked again.

"I only tried to do some of the stuff you asked me to do before you ran off." Kenshin answered. "And you have yet to tell me why you ran off." 

"What did I ask you to do? I only had you looking for books and then organizing half of the information into outlines!" Kaoru said, ignoring the second half of Kenshin's question.

"Well, I think that most of it got disorganized when you knocked me over." Kenshin told her. Kaoru let out a frustrated huff and began collecting papers. Some had landed on the floor and she bent to pick those up as well. She began sorting through the papers in front of her. She was annoyed because it was partially her fault that the papers had become a mess. The other half of the blame lay with Kenshin for being so irresistible to prank.

"Well, I'm going to take this home and organize it. You just have to be here tomorrow after school so that we can work some more. I want this done and out of the way. I have a lot of other schoolwork that I need to get done." Kaoru told him, pushing the papers into neater piles and placing them into a folder, before putting that into her bookbag. 

"Fine. I'll be here." 

"You better be on time." Kaoru added.

"Yeah, yeah. You still haven't answered my question about where you ran off to." He told her.

"I know. I don't know what to tell you. It's something to do with Aoshi and Misao, which you might have already figured out. I don't know if Aoshi told you anything either. If he didn't than he probably had a reason for not telling you." Kaoru explained.

"Tell me anyway. What would I say to Aoshi anyway? Guys don't do the whole giggly gossipy thing you girls do." Kenshin informed Kaoru. She looked back at him skeptically, gathering her bag up into her arms and swinging it over her shoulder.

"Well, I guess. Just don't mention this to Aoshi unless her says something to you." Kenshin nodded impatiently. Kaoru turned and headed towards the library doors. Kenshin jumped up to follow her. "First I want to ask you this, do you have any idea what Aoshi really feels for Misao?" Kaoru implored.

"You know him. He never says much, but I've always had the impression that he's liked her a bit more than everyone else." Kenshin answered as he held the door open for her.

"Thanks." She said, moving through. "Well, the other day Misao told Megumi and I that he kissed her." At Kenshin's look, she added, "Only on the cheek. Misao's a little confused because he didn't say a word. She doesn't know what it was supposed to be because Aoshi doesn't do that kind of thing at all. There's a lot of possibilities, and Misao wants to know the answer. She was going to waylay Aoshi after his newspaper meeting today to talk to him. She told me that she was going to wait out front for him, but he wasn't heading that way, so I went out to tell her and sent her off in the right direction." 

"Oh. So, that's it?" Kenshin asked.

"Yeah. I know, you're probably thinking that girls are so overdramatic about everything and what's all the fuss about and couldn't Misao just wait and a whole bunch of other stuff. Well, whatever. Girls see this kind of thing differently than guys and that's just the way it is." Kaoru told him. 

"Um, yeah. I was thinking more along the lines that I don't understand girls at all." Kenshin said. "You are really confusing at times."

"You know, I would think that having a sister would at least give you some idea on how to deal with girls, but she obviously hasn't rubbed off on you at all. How is school for Tomoe anyway? I haven't talked to her since the beginning of the school year." Kaoru changed the topic to one that Kenshin had been thinking about for a few days now. Right now would be the perfect time to talk about it.

"She's actually not doing very well, health-wise I mean. School-wise she's doing great, you know her. Perfect grades. Anyway, she can't really rub off on me if she's in the next state over, can she?" Kenshin said. 

"True. What's wrong with her? I she sick?" Kaoru asked. She was concerned for the girl who was a good friend, although she hadn't seen her in almost a year. 

"Well, the doctors are worried because she's been showing signs of having the same cancer that our mother had." Kenshin told her. "It's nothing definite, but something that we need to be careful about and she told me that she would feel more comfortable coming home and staying near our doctor here than having a doctor we're not familiar with near her. My aunt and uncle agree with her and she's going to be coming home for the end of the year next month."

"Oh no! That's horrible! I hope that she's going to be okay." Kaoru exclaimed. 

This was not something that needed to be added to Kenshin's already tragic past. His parent's had died in a major car accident, that killed nearly everyone who had been involved in it and it had gotten a lot of publicity. Kenshin's mother had found out a year before the accident that she had a type of cancer that was untreatable at the time. A week before the accident the family had gotten a call from one of the doctors to ask if Mrs. Himura wanted to undergo an experimental treatment, that at the very least would increase her chances of living a longer life. Kenshin's parents had been going to the hospital to talk to the doctor's the day they died.

Kenshin didn't respond to her statement, just kicked at a rock in his path. After a moment he repiled. "She's going to be okay." The silence ensued once more. 

"Okay, well, next time you talk to her tell her hi for me, okay?" Kenshin nodded. "We have to stay after school again tomorrow. This time you have to be on time." Kaoru said, changing the subject. 

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Kenshin waved his hand carelessly in her direction.

"No. It's not whatever. It's 'yes, I'm going to be on time tomorrow.' You got that. Is it processing in your tiny brain?" Kaoru asked, tapping Kenshin on the head. 

"Get off." He brushed her hands away. 

"Be on time. I'll remind you tomorrow every time I see you." Kaoru informed him. He just snorted and walked off in the direction of his home. 

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Misao ran around a corner. Aoshi was nowhere in sight. Kaoru had come too late and all that waiting had been for nothing. She swallowed her disappointment and ran a little further before turning in the direction of home.

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Blooded wings: Okay, now I get it about the romance. You have a good idea about what it actually is. I don't really mind other pairings, unless it's Kenshin or Kaoru paired with someone else. That I don't like. I just prefer AM and I don't think that I would be capable of writing a pairing other than that. 

Seashell: Thanks for reviewing!

punKrocKergrl: You're right about the love hate thing going on. That's what I mean for there to be happening. In a way I kind of have them being friends when it's convenient for them, like when they help each other out. I actually like the way Blooded wings puts romance, as chaos. 

Eruza: Thanks for reviewing and I'm glad that you like the pairings. Um, you actually got you're wish. I talked about Kenshin's family in this chapter. I was originally not going to, but the opportunity came up, so I did. 

Mori'quessir: Thanks, but my friend doesn't like anime at all and she doesn't like cartoons in general, But we've got a lot of other things in common so it's all good and I had a great time with her. 

I know it's a short, but I've had a lot going on lately. My other problem is that my laptop went and broke on me and I lost all my files and stuff. It was a pretty new computer too, so I'm a little upset. I've been using my family's computer, but it's kind of hard when there's five kids all trying to use it at the same time. I hope that you liked this chapter and my explanation of Kenshin's past. As for Tomoe, I didn't want to add an original character so she got the job. She's going to be coming into the story later. I'm thinking that the next chapter is going to be the day of Sano and Megumi's date, just to give you a head's up. So, enjoy the chapter and I'll try to get the next chapter up soon and hopefully my laptop will be back in working order soon as well. 

Konzert 


	15. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin

Enemies Till The End Chapter 14

Kaoru was walking up the stairs to get to her next class. She was oblivious to her surroundings as she searched through her folder for last night's homework. Her body was on autopilot as her brain scrambled for the information she needed, such as where she had put that damn homework.

Normally she would have known better, klutz that she was, that not paying attention combined with a staircase equaled a disaster, but not this time. She was too focused on what would happen to her if she didn't find the correct homework in time for her next class. This time there was the added factor of a sloppily tied shoelace that was her downfall. One step was all it took. 

The sensation of falling always took her by surprise, the way her stomach seemed to fall and her heart to freeze and cease beating in those few seconds. She twisted deftly using years of experience and pure instinct to balance herself out, but today was not going to be her day. An unexpected nudge to her shoulder from someone rushing in the opposite direction caused her to fall headlong down the staircase.

At least that would have been the case if a long line of students hadn't been crowding up the stairs behind her. Maybe luck was on her side, she thought as whoever had been behind her caught her securely, tipping a little under the added weight before regaining balance.

Kaoru's sight was impeded because her face was buried in the person's shoulder. All she could see was dark material. Her left arm was twisted awkwardly between them and her upper right arm was held in a firm grasp.

"I'm sorry." She said, though her voice was slightly muffled, as she calmed herself and pulled away, a warm scent lingering about her nose.

'You've got to be kidding me.' Was her immediate thought, though, once she had straightened herself and raised her head. She was staring at none other than Kenshin as students began to filter around them more concerned about getting to their next class.

Kenshin didn't seem to notice her though because he was looking over her shoulder, scanning the crowd for something or someone. He seemed to gather himself and responded.

"It was no problem at all." Then he appeared to wake up and realized who he had just caught. The warm absentminded grasp on her arm disappeared and a smirk emerged on his face. "Did you really have to go to such lengths to get me to notice you? Really, I mean you start an argument with me almost everyday. This was a little too much." He went on, pretending not to notice her turning red with anger. "You could have hurt me, not to mention the twenty other people on the staircase with us. Or are you really just that much of a klutz?"

Kaoru tried to collect herself before she did something that would land her in the principal's office. She also knew that if she opened her mouth, nothing coherent would come out of it and that would only give him more ammunition against her. So, instead of responding verbally she turned around violently and was satisfied to hear a thump as her bookbag made contact with him.

"Oh geez! What was that for?" He complained as she turned to glance back at him. He was holding onto his head like he was about to die any second.

"What do you think? First of all for coming up with the ridiculous idea that I would actually want your attention, secondly for calling me a klutz in front of everybody and thirdly for catching me." She paused for breath. "I think I would rather fall down the stairs than have you save me. Anybody else would have been better." Kaoru explained.

"You don't really think that." Kenshin stated firmly. That just really ticked her off. The self-assured way he stated things like anything he said was true just because he said so.

"How would you know what I was thinking?" She challenged. It was a weak response but she was actually curious to hear what his reasoning was. 

"For one thing, everybody in this school, well every female in this school, wants my attention and every female includes you, Kaoru. The only exception is your crazy little friend Misao. Everyone knows she's obsessed with Aoshi." He paused for a moment and appeared to be enjoying the shocked, fishy, mouth wide open look on her face, before he went on. "I also know that you would rather have me catch you than anyone else because every time I touch you, no matter how fleeting the contact you always shiver the slightest bit." He was looking her straight in the eyes as he said it, almost forcing her to believe something impossible. 

"That's just because I'm repulsed by you." She stated, trying to keep from shaking and pushing any ideas, other than the fact that the boy in front of her annoyed her immensely, out of her mind. 

"What if it's not?" This time he challenged her. "What if it's because-" He was cut off abruptly.

"KENSHIN!" A high pitched voice called. Kenshin looked panicked at the sound. Further down the hallway Kaoru glimpsed someone barreling toward them. It was a girl with a determined look in her eye.

"Don't forget after school. I'll be on time today." Kenshin told her before taking off in the opposite direction of the girl. Kaoru was momentarily stunned. The quick jump from one topic to another and then one more had left her dazed and trying to keep up with events. Things finally clicked into place and she watched as the girl scrambled past her, apparently in pursuit of Kenshin. Kenshin, who didn't want to be caught by this girl. 

It was amusing, but she had other things to think about and focus on. Like whether or not she was going to go to the library after school. Or the more immediate problem; getting to the classroom across the building in less than thirty seconds while finding her elusive homework.

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Well, I'm back. My explanation would take way too long, so I'm sorry. My updates are definitely going to take longer though. I would like to say every two weeks, but I don't really know how consistent I'll end up being. For those of you who wanted more to do with Kenshin and Kaoru, I hope that this chapter was sufficient, although it was short and that you'll enjoy it. So leave a review please!

Konzert 


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